The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The Conjugal
Dictatorship
of
Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Primitivo Mijares
1976 Edition
Primitivo Mijares
Page 1
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Reprinted by Tatay Jobo Elizes, a self-publisher.
This book is reprinted and republished under the expressed
permission and/or authorization of the heirs of the late Primitivo Mijares. The
copyright to this book belongs to the heirs, and represented by Perla Mijares,
the daughter, based in USA. This permission may be withdrawn or rescinded
by the said heirs if so desired without objections by Tatay Jobo Elizes.
Reprinting of this book is using the present-day method of Print-on-Demand
(POD) or Book-on-Demand (BOD) System, where prints will never run out of
copies.
Primitivo Mijares Testimony in US Congress
"After our last footnote updating this paper, Marcos’ top confidential
press man, Primitivo Mijares, Chairman of the Media Advisory Council and
twice President of the National Press Club with Marcos' support, testified in the
U.S. (House) Subcommittee on International Organizations which held
hearings on violations of human rights in South Korea and the Philip-
pines. Mr. Marcos attempted to bribe Mijares with $100,000 not to testify but
the latter spumed the bribe. Marcos denied the attempted bribery but from a
scrutiny of Mijares' testimony, the statement of denial and the cir-
cumstances described, the prob ability favors Mijares. Mr. Marcos denied
mainly the reported bnliery but not the contents of the testimony of his erstwhile
confidential press man. Considering that Mijares was an "insider” in the
Philippines, Mijares' testimony carries much weight.
Diosdado Macapagal Statement
"If Mijares were not credible, he would not have merited refutation by
Mr. Marcos himself as well us a formal exculpatory inquiry into the Mijares
charges by the senior Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs " — DIOSDADO P.
MACAPAGAL, former President of the Philippines, in his latest book,
Democracy in the Philippines.
Primitivo Mijares
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
To the Filipino People
Who dramatized in the
Battle of Mactan of April 27, 1521,
their rejection of a foreign tyranny
sought to be imposed by
Ferdinand Magellan, that they may
soon recover lost courage and,
with greater vigor and determination,
rid the Philippines of the evil rule
of a home-grown tyrant
with the same initials.
Primitivo Mijares
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
About the Author
by Cris D. Cabasares, written in 1976
PRIMITIVO "TIBO" MIJARES Is a 44-year-old newspaperman’s news-
paperman, the highlights of whose life may even be more colorful than the man
he writes about In this book. For, really, what will Ferdinand E. Marcos be, If
you take away his self-serving and self-created World War II exploits?
Mijares went through that world conflagration experiencing as a young boy
a tragedy and horror that would have driven hardened and matured men stark-
raving mad. He was but 12 years old when he came upon the mutilated bodies
of his slain mother, dead from the bayonet thrusts of Japanese soldiers, and
his father, dying from both Japanese bayonet and bullet wounds, in the smoking
ruins of their home.
Mijares was to narrowly escape death from the massacre and burning by
retreating Japanese soldiers of his hometown of Santo Tomas, Batangas, in
the Philippines, only because a few hours earlier he had led as the eldest child
his other younger sisters and brother out into the country to clear a field for
planting.
While his gunsmith father, Jose, was busy turning out home-made pistols,
called locally as paltiks for the resistance movement, young Mijares served as
the driver or cochero for the family’s horse-drawn rig, carretela, used in the
delivery of vinegar to outlying towns. In between supplying guns to the
guerrillas, the Mijares family was engaged in the fermentation of that liquid so
necessary to the Filipino palate.
When the Japanese military one day decided to commandeer all the horses
In the town, Mijares persuaded the Japanese to allow him to drive his carretela
home to unload the empty vinegar jars before surrendering his horse. But along
the way Mijares pretended to be yelling orders at his horse, although actually
he was shouting, in the local dialect unknown to the Japanese soldiers riding
beside him, to his townmates to hide their horses.
After World War II, the four Mijares orphans were distributed among their
mother’s uncles with the girls joining an uncle in Borneo, now Sabah, and the
boys staying in the Philippines. Tibo went to school near Baguio where his
uncle, an agriculturist, was stationed. He edited the high school newspaper,
was elected president of his graduating class and finished as valedictorian.
Mijares became the youngest editor of the Baguio Midland Courier, the
biggest city newspaper, in 1950. He became a full-pledge reporter the same
day he joined the defunct Manila Chronicle on August 1 5, 1 951 , covering all the
major beats.
Nights Mijares pursued his college studies, finishing his Bachelor of Arts
degree in 1 956, and Bachelor of Laws in 1 960, at the Lyceum of the Philippines.
He passed the Philippine bar examinations also in 1960.
Tibo figured in the most tumultuous events of his country. He was with
Arsenio H. Lacson, the best and most colorful mayor Manila ever had, when
Lacson, under the machineguns of armed forces armored cars, practically
cursed into retreat back to camp the first attempt to impose martial law in the
city.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Tibo was both a star witness and active participant in the greatest single
upheaval to hit the Philippines. The full story is, of course, in this book.
- 00 -
Original Cover of the 1976 Edition
Primitivo Mijares
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Contents
Author’s Foreword - 7
Acknowledgment - 9
Chapter I - A Summer Night in Washington, D.C. - 10
Chapter II - 'Manila-Gate' - 34
Chapter III - Twilight of Democracy - 48
Chapter IV - A Dark Age Begins - 83
Chapter V - Infrastructure of Martial Law - 111
Chapter VI - The Other Villains - 143
Chapter VII - The Reign of Greed - 157
Chapter VIII - The Unholy Trinity - 176
Chapter IX - Too Late the Hero - 194
Chapter X - The Loves of Marcos - 218
Chapter XI - Philippine ‘Gulag’: A Paralysis of Fear - 227
Chapter XII - The Era of Thought Control - 266
Chapter XIII - American Tax Dollar Abets Repression - 301
Chapter XIV - International Protection Racket - 329
Chapter XV - Spineless Judiciary Legits a Pretender - 339
Chapter XVI - Plans in Perpetuity - 365
Chapter XVII - Whither Marcos? - 389
Photo Section - 411
W « B w t ■
Author’s Picture
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Author’s Foreword
This book is unfinished. The Filipino people shall finish it for me.
I wrote this volume very, very slowly. 1 could have done with it In three
months after my defection from the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and
Imelda Marcos on February 20.1975. Instead, I found myself availing of every
excuse to slow it down. A close associate, Marcelino P. Sarmiento, even
warned me, “Baka mapanis ’yan ." (Your book could become stale.)
While I availed of almost any excuse not to finish the manuscript of this
volume, I felt the tangible voices of a muted people back home in the Philippines
beckoning to me from across the vast Pacific Ocean. In whichever way I turned,
I was confronted by the distraught images of the Filipino multitudes crying
out to me to finish this work, lest the frailty of human memory - or any incident
a la Nalundasan - consign to oblivion the matters I had in mind to form the vital
parts of this book. It was as if the Filipino multitudes and history itself were
surging in an endless wave presenting a compelling demand on me to
San Francisco, California perpetuate the personal knowledge I have gained
on the infamous machinations of Ferdinand E. Marcos and his overly ambitious
wife, Imelda, that led to a day of infamy in my country, that Black Friday on
September 22, 1972, when martial law was declared as a means to establish
history’s first conjugal dictatorship. The sense of urgency in finishing this work
was also goaded by the thought that Marcos does not have eternal life and that
the Filipino people are of unimaginable forgiving posture. I thought that, if I did
not perpetuate this work for posterity, Marcos might unduly benefit from a
Laurelian statement that, when a man dies, the virtues of his past are magnified
and his faults are reduced to molehills.
This is a book for which so much has been offered and done by Marcos
and his minions so that it would never see the light of print. Now that it is off the
press. I entertain greater fear that so much more will be done to prevent its
circulation, not only in the Philippines but also in the United States.
But this work now belongs to history. Let it speak for itself in the context of
developments within the coming months or years. Although it finds great
relevance in the present life of the present life of the Filipinos and of Americans
interested in the study of subversion of democratic governments by apparently
legal means, this work seeks to find its proper niche in history which must
inevitably render its judgment on the seizure of government power from the
people by a lame duck Philippine President.
If I had finished this work immediately after my defection from the
totalitarian regime of Ferdinand and Imelda, or after the vicious campaign of
the dictatorship to vilify me in July-August. 1 975, then I could have done so only
in anger. Anger did influence my production of certain portions of the manu-
script. However, as I put the finishing touches to my work, I found myself
expurgating it of the personal venom, the virulence and intemperate language
of my original draft.
Some of the materials that went into this work had been of public
knowledge in the Philippines. If I had used them, it was with the intention of
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
utilizing them as links to heretofore unrevealed facets of the various ruses that
Marcos employed to establish his dictatorship.
Now, I have kept faith with the Filipino people. I have kept my rendezvous
with history. I have, with this work, discharged my obligation to myself, my
profession of journalism, my family and my country.
I had one other compelling reason for coming out with this work at the great
risks of being uprooted from my beloved country, of forced separation from my
wife and children and losing their affection, and of losing everything I have in
my name in the Philippines — or losing life itself. It is that I wanted to make
a public expiation for the little influence that I had exercised on the late Don
Eugenio Lopez into handpicking a certain Ferdinand E. Marcos as his
candidate for the presidency of the Philippines in the elections of 1965. Would
the Filipinos be suffering from a conjugal dictatorship now, if I had not originally
planted in Lopez’s consciousness in 1962 that Marcos was the "unbeatable
candidate" for 1965?
To the remaining democracies all over the world, this book is offered us a
case study on how a democratically-elected President could operate within the
legal system and yet succeed in subverting that democracy in order to
perpetuate himself and his wife as conjugal dictators.
I entertain no illusions that my puny work would dislodge Ferdinand and
Imelda from their concededly entrenched position. However, history teaches us
that dictators always fall, either on account of their own corrupt weight or sheer
physical exhaustion. I am hopeful that this work would somehow set off,
or contribute to the ignition, of a chain reaction that would compel Marcos to
relinquish his vise-like dictatorial grip on his own countrymen.
When the Filipino is then set free, and could participate in cheerful cry over
the restoration of freedom and democracy in the Philippines, that cry shall be
the fitting finish to this, my humble work
April 27. 1976
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Acknowledgment
I would need an additional chapter in a
futile attempt to acknowledge all the help I
received in producing this volume. However,
I would be extremely remiss, if I did not
acknowledge my debt of gratitude to the librarians
at the Southeast Asia Center, University
of California at Berkeley, and the thousands
of Filipinos in the United States and back
home in the Philippines whose enthusiasm
for, and dedication to, freedom and democracy
guided my unsteady hands in an unerring
course to finish this work.
— The Author
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Chapter I
A Summer Night in Washington, D.C.
The capital of the United States of America had always incited in me the
inner feelings of love of country, a feeling which I seem to overlook while I am
actually in my own terra firma on Philippine soil; it is as if one is given a sudden
urge of imbibing, and seeking to belong to a vital footnote to, history. Except for
this latest trip of mine which I was pondering this sultry summer night on June
16, 1975, every time I visited Washington, D.C. which, to me, stands out not
only as the capital of the United States but also of the democratic western world
as well as the*J.S. allies in Asia, I always felt that I was invested with a sense
of mission for my country, even though my trips to this capital of the world had
always been undertaken by me in my capacity as a simple newspaperman. So
it was the way I felt in June, 1 958, when, as a young reporter for the now defunct
Manila Chronicle, I first set foot on Washington, D.C. My first trip to Washington,
D.C. was in connection with my coverage of the state visit of then President
Carlos P. Garcia.
The thought alone of going to Washington, D.C., that square mass of land
carved out of the territories of the states of Maryland and Virginia, becomes
awe-inspiring; being in D.C. itself gives one a sense of history. As two great
journalist-observers of Washington, D.C. put it, “the numerous national monu-
ments that give Washington, its physical and spiritual identity are as revered by
the home folks as they are by the thousands of tourists who come streaming in
every year at cherry-blossom time.” Indeed, a great many people attempt to
make it to Washington, D.C. not only because they seek to honor America’s
great national heritage, but also because they want to be part of it, in however
small a way.
But on this summer night of June 1 6, 1 975,1 felt that somehow I just might
be a part of the history of the United States and of my country, the Philippines,
or perhaps as an insignificant footnote, but certainly a part of the historical
record of one of the chambers of the bicameral Congress of the United States
of America. In the midst of such heady thought, I was, however, sobered up by
a warning given earlier by former Senator Raul S. Manglapus, president of the
“Movement for a Free Philippines,” that I should not expect too much —
presumably by way of publicity — out of this visit to Washington, D.C. I should
rather think of my mission in Washington, D.C., Manglapus suggested, as a
bold strike for a great national struggle being waged by Filipinos back home in
the Philippines. I told Manglapus that I was going to Washington, D.C. in
response to an invitation of a committee of the United States Congress. I will
not be seeking headlines. I am not going to perform any heroics.
I told myself that I almost did not make this trip to the U.S. capital, were it
not for the foresight and valued assessment of a greying Bataan warrior who,
while his colleagues are enjoying the blissful luxury of retirement and quiet life,
has taken on a second struggle for the freedom of his country. It was Col. Nar-
ciso L. Manzano (USA Retired), a Bataan war hero whose exploits are
documented by Gen. Carlos P. Romulo in his book, “I Saw the Fall of the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Philippines,” who brought my name to the attention of, and insisted on my
appearing before, the best forum available as of now to any struggle for the
peaceful overthrow of a dictatorship — the United States Congress.
It is an historical irony that one of the few really effective fighters in the
United States against a dictatorship that has engulfed the Philippines is this
authentic and unassuming hero of the Battle of Bataan.
Manzano is a no nonsense brutally frank man who used to coach soccer
teams in Manila. Now supposed to live in retirement in San Francisco, Manzano
has proved to possess more energy than several men half his age. Not given
to unnecessary delays and red tape, Manzano instead has waited for no man
and depended on no one in carrying out his one-man battle against despotism
in the Philippines. He staked his very life fighting a despotism imposed by
foreigners during the dark days of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.
The man is now waging another heroic battle against a home-grown
tyranny.
Manzano has flooded the U.S. Congress and the White House with
telegrams, personal letters, mostly handwritten, documents and press clippings
pointing out why American officialdom should not support the dictatorship in the
Philippines. Manzano even managed to convince television stations in (he
San Francisco area to grant him free air time in refuting single-handedly the
overpowering propaganda of the Manila martial regime in the United States.
In fact, Manzano and Antonio Garcia, MFP information officer, were the
only two persons who supported me mightily in my decision to go to
Washington, D.C. Manzano used some of his contacts on Capitol Hill to make
sure that I would be heard in committee by the United States Congress.
It was the case I was about to state, and the very decision I have made to
state such case, before the U.S. Congress that gave me a sense of purpose, a
mission for my country, and a sense of entering the threshold of history.
At the time, I tried to relate the feeling I had to the fact that, the United
States of America, on the eve of its bicentennial, had found a most auspicious,
if regrettable, occasion to dramatize the wisdom of its Founding Fathers in
opting for a responsible living presidency at the apex of government. I imaged
the delegates to the Continental Congress rejecting overwhelmingly in
1776 certain well-intentioned proposals that the former British colonies of North
America embrace a dictatorial form of government for the newly-independent
nation. I thought that the situation that was presented the United States of
America 199 years after its launching into independent nationhood was the
exemplification of the principle of taxation with representation; people pay
heavy taxes as the price of their having a voice in the affairs of government.
The propitious occasion was, of course, the forced resignation of President
Richard Milhous Nixon on August 9, 1 974, under the pressure of an impending
impeachment trial in the wake of the Watergate scandal. It demonstrated in
ringing tones — louder perhaps than when the bells of Philadelphia tolled the
end of the British rule over the North American colonies — that, under a rule of
republican government of the United States of America, no man, however
nigh and mighty he might be, can be above the law, and the great American
system founded in 1 776 would know how to deal with a man who places himself
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
above the law or tampers with sacred and hallowed institutions of the United
States of America. I was thinking at the time that, whatever condemnation might
be reserved for the ill-fated Nixon presidency, Nixon, alone of all people, acted
heroically to make the American system work by his resignation from the
premier White House post. Nixon himself being a part of that system knew
exactly what to do when the fateful event came upon its hour, never for
a moment, it seems, did Nixon think that all the screaming agitations within the
various sectors of U.S. society to have him disciplined for his breach of faith
were an illegal conspiracy of the rightists, the centrists or the leftists in
collaboration with members of the American media, youth movements and
the general American public, to overthrow the duly-constituted government of
the United States of America.
The conditions in Washington, D.C. and across the continent of the United
States at the time of Nixon’s Watergate crisis suited to a “T” the description of
conditions in the Philippines a few months before September, 1972, as
described by Romulo, in his capacity as secretary of foreign affairs of the
Philippines, before the Commonwealth Club of California on May 24,1973, in
San Francisco. Romulo declared that the Philippines at the time was “mired in
the other darker depths of democracy — the bickering, the factionalism, the
corruption, the aimless drift, and more than these, the rebellion of the alienated
x x x.” Romulo’s employer in the Philippines viewed and interpreted the
conditions in Manila in a different light, in a most absurd way. And yet, freedom-
loving Americans viewed the agitations in their country in the wake of the
Watergate scandal — agitations which also paralleled Philippine conditions
resulting from official corruption, abuses and ineptitude — as developments
that are as serious and as normal as that with which democracy is faced and
for which democracy does, in its own tedious, humane and noble way,
ultimately found the proper solutions. As for Nixon, he obviously viewed all the
exercises resulting from Watergate, concerted or disparate as they may
have appeared, as a solid indication that America no longer wanted him to rule
for he had lost his moral and legal authority to lead the country from the seat of
the ever-living presidency. He saw the light; that democracy rejuvenates itself
in the system of government of the United States by the very act of renewal of
faith by its own people in the system.
Indeed, Nixon could have contrived some serious crises, like plunging
America into a new war in Indochina or provoking some economic crises that
might have compelled his tormentors to forget Watergate in the meantime. As
a matter of fact, in Manila at the time, the Department of Public Information, on
instructions from the Office of the President, encouraged coffee shop talks that
Nixon would hold on to the presidency by provoking some world crises that
would require Americans to close ranks behind their President.
Nixon did indeed agonize over the decision he had to make in bowing to
the superiority and workability of the American democratic system over and
above the personal or ethical interests of one man, be he the President of the
United States or the lowly street cleaner. And, as Nixon agonized personally
over his duty to strengthen the fabric of the American system of representative
government, voices of sympathy, admiration and condemnation for his strength
of will in his hour of crisis crisscrossed the world.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
“Sayang si Nixon, kaibigan pa naman natin. Kung mayroon sana siyang
martial law powers at may lakas ng loob na katulad ng sir natin . . . e, di, okay
na okay lang siya sa White House. Waia sanang aabuso sa kanya” (What a
pity for Nixon, considering that he is our friend. If only he had martial law powers
and had the courage like our sir [to exercise the powers] ... then he would be
stable in the White House. He wouldn’t have to take those abuses [criticisms
from Congress and the American media, among others].)
"Oo nga sana, pero waia siyang ganyang powers na katulad dito sa atin. ”
(Yes, but he doesn’t have such powers under the American Constitution as we
have under ours.)
The dialogue at the time was between Philippine President Ferdinand E.
Marcos and his wife, Imelda Romualdez-Marcos, as they talked about the
difficulties of President Nixon at the hands of Judge John Sirica, and the select
Senate Watergate Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by
Senator Sam Ervin and Rep. Peter W. Rodino, Jr., respectively, not to mention
the unrelenting independent investigations of the mass media. The scene of
this dialogue was Marcos’ public “study room” where the First Lady had stopped
by after disposing of her own callers for the day in her “Music Room.” The
First Lady, who spoke first, really felt sincerely sympathetic to the beleaguered
President Nixon whose administration had initially given backing to the military-
supported New Society of President and Mrs. Marcos. And now, it was the
sincere wish of the conjugal rulers in Manila that President Nixon should be
able to set up just the kind of military government that the duumvirate have in
the Philippines so that the American Chief Executive could extricate himself
from the tightening noose of the Watergate scandal.
The smug conjugal leaders of the Philippines knew exactly what they were
talking about. They had just done in their country what they had hoped Nixon
would be able to do in the United States; they had availed of, to their personal
advantage, an extreme measure provided for an actual emergency by the
Constitution of the Philippines under the provisions of Article II, Section 10,
paragraph (2), which stated:
“The President shall be the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of
the Philippines and, whenever it becomes necessary, he may call out such
armed forces to prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion, insurrection, or
rebellion, in case of invasion, insurrection, or rebellion, or imminent danger
thereof, when the public safety requires it, he may suspend the privilege of the
writ of habeas corpus, or place the Philippines or any part thereof under martial
law.”
As early as the date of their improvident dialogue on Nixon’s predicament,
which was about December, 1972, the Marcoses of the Philippines were
already forming definite ideas about extending the influence of their conjugal
rule in the Philippines into the United States of America. This is because they
have found out rather painfully that the military-backed New Society launched
by Marcos has not drawn significant support among the overseas Filipinos,
much less among the rank and file Americans in the U.S. mainland.
On another occasion, the First Lady revealed during one of her noon day
talks with the people around the President, which included myself, that
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
President Nixon had given his “personal blessings” to the imposition of martial
law in Manila.
Mrs. Marcos disclosed that President Marcos had an overseas telephone
conversation with President Nixon a few days before Sept. 21,1972. Her
recollection of the phone conversation was that Marcos told Nixon that bombs
were exploding all over Manila and that Communist-instigated demonstrations
were assuming uncontrollable proportions; that he (Marcos) is under
compulsion to proclaim martial law to protect the integrity of
the Republic and its interests, including the varied American interests in the
islands; and that Nixon told Marcos to “go ahead” with his plans “because Nixon
wanted to see if martial law would work here.”
Mrs. Marcos revealed that President Nixon wanted to find out how well
Marcos would be able to wield his powers as commander-in-chief of the armed
forces to extricate himself from his political troubles. The implication of her
statement was that Nixon knew very well in advance Marcos’ political plans
when the Philippine President “sought” the U.S. President’s clearance to
impose martial law in his country. At the time, Nixon himself was already facing
seemingly insurmountable political troubles arising out of the Watergate
scandal. The First Lady claimed that Nixon wanted Marcos’ martial law to work
effectively “because he might find need for a model which he could adopt later
on in the United States.”
“We are actually doing Nixon a favor by showing him herein the Philippines
how martial law can be wieldecf to save a President from his political troubles,”
Mrs. Marcos declared.
Contrary to the wishes of the Marcoses, President Nixon did not choose to
concoct any device or stratagem that would have allowed him to avail of the
commander-in-chief provision of the United States Constitution, suspend civil
and political rights and thereby silence all criticisms and opposition to his rule
in the White House. Nixon chose resignation and temporary infamy at his St.
Helena in San Clemente, California, as his own heroic contribution to the cause
of strengthening the fabric of the democratic system of government in the
United States of America.
It was the peaceful, orderly and legal manner by which the United States’
system dealt decisively and unerringly with Nixon’s Watergate that made the
eve of the U.S. bicentennial more meaningful; its system of removing an erring
and unwanted Chief Executive becoming the object of hope and aspiration in
desperation among oppressed and tyrannized peoples, like the 45 million
Filipinos now groaning under a yoke set up by a home-grown tyrant.
And when oppressed peoples think of the American system, with its living
presidency, the microcosm of their thoughts, aspirations and hopes for “life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness” turns hopefully to Washington, D.C., the
capital of the world where people can look up to a Washington Post to expose
government venalities and official shenanigans without fear or favor.
Filipinos look up to Washington, D.C. as their own special capital city, too.
There are justifiable grounds for this attitude, although the ultra-nationalists in
my country would denounce it as colonial mentality. Momentous events have
taken place in Washington, D.C. that helped shape the destiny of that 7,100-
island archipelago known as the Republic of the Philippines. It was in
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Washington, D.C. where, at the turn of the century, then President William
McKinley “had a divine inspiration” 1 that convinced him that it was the mission
(* 1 . See Page 123, printed record of the hearings of the Subcommittee on International
Organizations of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, U.S.
Congress, series of 1975.)
of the United States to “civilize and christianize” the Philippines; it was that
divine inspiration which impelled McKinley to decide to order the U.S. Far East
Fleet, commanded by Commodore George Dewey, to destroy the Spanish
Fleet off Manila Bay, thereby paving the way for the colonization of the
Philippines by the United States. Thus, upon the establishment by General
Wesley Merritt of an American military government in Manila, on August
14,1898, President McKinley, who was girding for a reelection, intoned: “The
Philippines are ours, not to exploit, but to develop, to civilize, to educate, to train
in the science of self-government.”
As the Philippines came under American rule, Filipinos never faltered in
their desire to govern themselves. Numerous missions and resolutions were
dispatched to the United States by leaders of the Philippine independence
movement even as the Philippines enjoyed benevolent American rule, enjoying
the protection of the Bill of Rights as found in the U.S. Constitution. All the
agitations for self-rule for the Filipinos ultimately resulted in the passage by the
two chambers of the U.S. Congress of two similar Philippine freedom bills, one
introduced by Senator Millard Tydings in the Senate and the other authored
by Congressman John McDuffie in the House. Enacted by the United States
Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the so-called
Tydings-McDuffie Act was accepted by the Philippine Legislature in behalf of
the Filipino people on May 1,1934. The Tydings-McDuffie Law provided for
the establishment of a Commonwealth Government and recognition of
Philippine Independence on the fourth of July immediately following the end of
the ten-year period from the date of the Commonwealth inauguration. More
importantly, the Tydings-McDuffie Law provided that a Constitution, subject to
approval by the President of the United States * z and to ratification by the
Filipino people,* 3 shall establish a republican presidential form of government
for both the transition Commonwealth and the Republic to be declared
independent. Independence was granted the Republic of the Philippines on
July 4, 1946.
(*2. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the Constitution as drafted under the terms
of the Tydings-McDuffie Law on March 23, 1935.
3. The Filipino people ratified the Constitution by an overwhelming vote on May 14, 1935.)
Thus, from 1947 to 1961, the Philippines marked its Freedom Day on July
4. In 1962, a Philippine President (Diosdado P. Macapagal) reset the day of
Philippine Independence to June 12, the date in 1898 when Gen. Emilio
Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Philippines from Spanish rule
from the balcony of his home in Kawit, Cavite. The Filipino people, how-
ever, continue to celebrate July 4 as Philippine-American Friendship Day or
Republic Day. The radical move of Macapagal was described by admirers as
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
nationalism of the highest order, but what could not be erased was the
observation that the change was effected in the wake of the rejection by the
U.S. Congress in February, 1962, of an omnibus bill which would have granted
the Philippines additional war payments to the tune of $78 million. Included in
the proposed additional war damage payments was a personal claim made by
a certain Ferdinand E. Marcos for $8 million to compensate for food and.
war material he allegedly supplied the American guerillas in Mindanao during
the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines. The U.S. War Damage
Commission had earlier rejected the Mindanao during the Japanese
Occupation of the Philippines. The U.S. War Damage Commission had earlier
rejected the same personal war damage claims of Marcos as “fake.” * 4
(*4. See Chapter on “Too Late the Hero.”
One of the fiery supporters of President Macapagal on his transfer of the
date of Philippine Independence was then Senator Ferdinand E. Marcos who
delivered an emotional oratory denouncing “America’s ingratitude” for the
Bataan sacrifices of Filipino soldiers, like him. In the course of his fiery speech,
Marcos even went through the motions, along with another senator (Eulogio
Balao) whose heroic exploits in the battles against the Japanese have never
been questioned by anyone, of returning to the United States embassy in
Manila all his 28 war decorations, most of which he had obtained 1 7 years after
his alleged heroic exploits in the war.* 5 (*5. ibid.) Marcos’ act of “returning”
his war medals to the United States embassy prompted then Senate Majority
Leader Cipriano Primicias, Sr. to ask rhetorically: “How can. he return those
medals to the U.S. embassy when all but two of them are Philippine decorations
which he obtained only a month ago and 17 years after the war?” In any case,
when Marcos himself became President of his country in 1965, he upheld the
decision of Macapagal and to this day leads his nation in celebrating
Independence Day every 12th day of June.
Washington, D.C. is thus of special significance to the Filipinos. There was
even a time when Filipinos, especially the newspapermen, considered going to
Washington, D.C. a special pilgrimage in much the same spirit that a Filipino
Muslim looks forward to a visit to Mecca in Jeddha, a lifetime obligation.
Thus, Filipino newsmen found themselves in the 50s and early 60s making a
mad scramble for the much-coveted Fulbright and Smith-Mundt travel grants
offered through the State Department in order that they could acquire the status
symbol of having made the trip to Washington, D.C. Lately, however, the status
symbol has had some changes, with Filipino newsmen considering that the trips
to Moscow or Peking are the current “musts” for media men. The outstanding
symbol of a Filipino newsman’s achievement in Washington, D.C. is, of course,
Abelardo “Al” Valencia, the first Filipino correspondent of the Associated Press
before World War II, who is now doing some press and public relations work
for the Philippine embassy in Washington, D.C.
I imagine that the patriotic feeling that Washington, D.C. awakens in me
when I am within her fold works similarly for most other Filipinos who are awed
by the relevance of the U.S. capital to their own lives as citizens of the
Philippines. It was in Washington, D.C. where Proculo Rodriguez, Jr., the man
largely responsible in preventing the Commission on Elections from being used
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
by the ruling Liberal party in 1965 in cheating then presidential candidate
Ferdinand E. Marcos, launched the first protest against martial law by staging
on September 25,1972, a one-man demonstration in front of the Philippine
embassy. It was also in Washington, D.C. where another Filipino, Napoleon
Lechoco, Sr., single-handedly invaded the Philippine embassy and held
hostage the Filipino envoy, Ambassador Eduardo Z. Romualdez, for 11 hours
to dramatize a demand that his son, Napoleon, Jr., be given an exit permit from
the Philippines.* 6 In so doing, Lechoco, Sr., a former Manila newsman and
crusader against graft and corruption in government, heroically called world
attention to the tyranny, oppression and repression going on in the Philippines.
(*6 Lechoco, a native of Masbate, Philippines, entered the Philippine embassy and held the
ambassador at gunpoint on Nov. 18,1974, demanding the release by the martial regime in Manila
of his son, Napoleon, Jr. He said that his son who has been granted an immigrant visa by the U.S.
government, was being deliberately blocked in his attempt to leave Manila in retaliation for the anti-
martial law activities of the elder Lechoco in the U.S. The martial regime capitulated to Lechoco,
Sr., granting his demands in exchange for the release of Ambassador Romualdez unharmed. There
was the general observation among Filipinos at home and abroad, however, that, if the envoy had
not been a Romualdez, the martial regime would not have yielded so easily to the demands of
Lechoco. The ambassador happened to be a first cousin of the First Lady.)
There must be in the atmosphere or conditions that are a monopoly of
Washington, D.C. that would induce men to take actions that, viewed singularly
as such acts, would lead other ordinary men to conclude that such actuations
are foolhardy, such as the actions taken by Rodriguez or by Lechoco, who are
both Filipino immigrants in the United States. And yet, a district court in the
District of Columbia rejected a defense argument that Lechoco, Sr. acted in a
state of sanity in holding Ambassador Romualdez hostage in exchange for his
son.
On the night of June 1 6,1 975,1 was assessing the impact of Washington,
D.C. on the lives of Filipinos, including mine at the very moment, in much the
same way perhaps that John W. Dean III must have pondered his own
predicament while preparing to blow the whistle on his former boss. It could
have been just a coincidence, but I could not help thinking that I was an “insider”
in the Marcos administration in much the same manner that Dean was in the
Nixon White House and that what I was about to do the next day (June 1 7) was
to expose a gargantuan political scandal that would dwarf the Watergate
scandal which broke out in Washington, D.C. just two years earlier, on June 1 7,
1 972. 1 was studying the words I would have to utter for the June 1 7, 1 975 affair
of mine, serenely on that sultry summer night of Washington, D.C. amidst the
comfort of the fairly efficient air-conditioning system of Room No. 733 of the
Mid-Town Motor Inn, an ideally-located motel almost midway between the
White House and the U.S. Capitol building complex, with address at 1201 K.
St., N.W. Washington, D.C. My room phone rang and, after some hesitation,
allowing it to ring a few times more, I grabbed the receiver to say, “Hello? Yes?”
“Operator!” interjected a voice from one end of what surprised me then as
an overseas call, a call that would later turn out to be a notorious episode in the
history of the Philippines, “the man answering is my party already. Tibooo!
Botihss... Si...”
“Just a moment, Mr. Secretary,” interrupted a decidedly Oriental female
Primitivo Mijares Page 17
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
voice, so familiar to my eardrums as that of an overseas telephone operator
from Manila.
And so much more familiar was the clear voice of the man who now wanted
to establish urgently a line with me, 10,000 miles away. I could recognize his
voice inspite of the waterfall-like hissing sound that an overseas telephone
connection makes.
After all, I have been associated for years with the now agitated possessor
of that voice; I have carried on overseas telephone conversations with him three
times a day for over a one-month period from San Francisco, New York and
Washington, D.C. on a quasi-state affair of the “highest priority” rating. The
project in which I was involved at the time had “highest priority” rating because
the principal was the female half of the ruling duumvirate in the Philippines, the
First Lady Imelda R. Marcos. It was not only the consideration of her personality
that made the project of such “high priority”; it was what she wanted to
accomplish that made me and other hirelings of the dictatorship in the
Philippines work in earnest. She wanted the American media to take notice of
her in a favorable light as she pulls — as programmed at that time — another
“diplomatic coup” in the United States to match her diplomatic triumph in
being able to visit China’s aging Chairman Mao Tse-Tung in Peking in
September, 1974. The Philippines’ First Lady was sorely irritated that the
international media have played down her triumphant Peking trip. Only the
controlled Manila press spoke glowingly of her “achievements” in the field of
diplomacy by her China visit. She blamed Information Secretary Francisco S.
Tatad for having previously poisoned the foreign press against her.
I was asked to help out in the new image-building project for Mrs. Marcos
in the United States; I was their all-around propaganda man, especially on
projects where the official link of the government must not be established, if
they should fail. My mission was to establish in my “private capacity” contact
with the overseas Filipinos opposed to the martial regime in the Philippines.
The job I had to do was not an easy one; otherwise, it could have been just
assigned to one of the officials or staff employees of the Philippine embassy in
Washington, D.C. or the Consulate General in New York. But I was brought all
the way from Manila to handle this particularly messy job.
“So, Mr. Mijares, you have become their Donald Segretti,” quipped
Alejandro del Rosario, city editor of the defunct Manila Chronicle and now
information attache at the New York consulate, as he reported to me on orders
from Ambassador Ernesto Pineda, the consul general to New York, to assist
me in the prosecution of my mission.
We set up headquarters in one of the rooms of the Commodore Hotel 42nd
street in New York city, avoiding being seen at the Philippine Consulate in order
to maintain the “cover” that I was contacting the exiles on my own initiative. I
was soon joined by public relations practitioner Jose T. Tumbokon with whom
I was supposed to be travelling on private business.
If my mission had been a sure thing, it just might have been grabbed,
instead of being delegated to me, by Benjamin “Ko-koy” Romualdez, the
favorite brother of Mrs. Marcos. An ambitious, rapacious and insatiable man,
he wants to be known as the Kissinger of the Philippines because he had
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
performed for President Marcos some diplomatic trouble-shooting which, he
said, should place him on equal stature with U.S. State Secretary Henry
Kissinger; but coffee shop wags in Manila have already dubbed him
“Kokoysinger” or “the man who’s got cuckoo-yon his head.” Kokoy realized the
difficulty of my assignment, but he thought that I just might be able to do it. I
almost did. The mission flopped, not because of lack of goodwill on the part of
the Filipino exiles or of resourcefulness on my part, but because of the stupidity
and penchant for duplicity of Kokoy himself.
My mission was discussed and cleared beforehand by Kokoy with
President Marcos. Coordination was then assigned to the man who was now
so eager to talk to me on this night of June 16,1 975, by overseas telephone. I
made sure myself, however, that it was really the President’s desire that I fly to
the United States — as I did on October 21,1974 — to arrange a meeting
between the Philippines’ bejewelled and extravagant First Lady and the Filipino
exiles who constitute the overseas opposition to the martial regime in the
Philippines. The First Lady had persuaded her husband-President to allow her
to go to New York to inaugurate on November 14,1974, the $8 million Philip-
pine Center on Fifth Avenue. Of course, Leandro Quintana, business editor of
the Philippine News, swears that the First Lady of the Philippines, aside from
doing official chores for Marcos, had been observed by him strengthening her
Israeli connections at the Carlyle Hotel in New York, specifically with an Israeli
violinist.
When I said my goodbyes to President Marcos on October 19, 1974, to
undertake the “get Manglapus mission,” the President gave me specific
instructions on the line I should take in talking to the former senator. Marcos
did not entertain any illusion, much less a desire, such as which Mrs. Marcos
had, on the dismantling of the apparatus of overseas opposition to his dic-
tatorial rule in the Philippines. He gave me the impression that he would as a
matter of fact prefer to have a semblance of an opposition from abroad to the
martial regime; also, he wanted a man of Manglapus’ stature to lead such a
movement.
Marcos told me that the last emissary he had authorized to see Manglapus
goofed. The emissary was retired Philippine Navy Commander Juan B.
Magluyan, a townmate of Manglapus and former comrade in the guerilla
movement during the Japanese Occupation. He instructed me to reiterate to
Manglapus the message he had authorized Magluyan to convey: that
Manglapus could concentrate on graft and corruption among top military
commanders in attacking the martial regime, and that he should also condemn
the old society politicians for driving Marcos to declare martial law.
I surmised that the objective of Marcos in seeking to convey a message to
Manglapus was to make the former senator do what Marcos could not himself
do: upbraid the military commanders on their deep involvement in graft and
corruption under the martial regime. At the same time, Marcos also wanted to
prevent possible unification of domestic and overseas anti-martial law efforts
by alienating Manglapus from the sidelined political leaders back home.
After spelling out his instructions to me, Marcos advised me to return to
Manila as soon as possible since the Media Advisory Council has to be
reorganized. I told him I had already drafted and passed on to Presidential
Executive Assistant Jacobo C. Clave a decree replacing the MAC with two
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
smaller censorship and licensing councils. The decision to abolish MAC was
made by Marcos on October 15,1974, during a conference which was attended
by Bulletin Today publisher Hans Menzi, Secretary Tatad, and myself.
The contact with the Filipino exiles, specifically elements comprising the
“Movement for a Free Philippines,” which is headed by former Senator
Manglapus, was programmed principally for the First Lady. It was to have had
certain sinister purposes which not even President Marcos figured out when he
put his stamp of approval to the project; he did not even realize that the amount
of government funds he had approved for the First Lady’s trip would be
multiplied no less than ten times in an arm-twisting method that only an
extravagant First Lady like Mrs. Marcos is capable of doing. Firstly, the contact
with Filipino exiles was to be held out to Marcos himself by the female half of
the ruling duumvirate in Manila that, everywhere Imelda might be, whether she
be in mainland China or continental America, she becomes an instant hit; her
irresistible charms work on heretofore antagonists, opponents and bitter critics
of the conjugally-managed New Society in the Philippines. Secondly, it was
going to be exploited later on as a death-blow to the overseas opposition to the
martial regime in the Philippines. It was to be a ruse, the plan being to make it
appear that the exiles led by Manglapus had sought the kindhearted help of
Imelda in seeking forgiveness for their anti-martial law activities in the United
States. As a matter of fact, during her stop-over in Honolulu on her way to New
York, the First Lady read a statement that her dictator-husband was offering
amnesty to all overseas Filipinos who feel they might have committed a crime
or crimes against the New Society. It was a ridiculous offer because, as every
student of law realizes, no citizen of a country, excepting those in the diplomatic
service, can be held liable for any act he may have committed outside the
territorial limits of his country even though it be a violation of his country’s laws.
Thirdly, the “feat” of making the exiles “surrender” to Mrs. Marcos was also
going to be beamed to President Gerald Ford in order to compel a decision
on his part to receive the First Lady at the White House, an expected happening
that Imelda and Kokoy figured would complete the scenario that Imelda
Romualdez-Marcos is a hit whether she be with Mao or Ford. Kokoy was
supposed to have started the groundwork for the White House “conquest” by
Mrs. Marcos, having convinced his brother-in-law that he was the best man to
do it in view of his “strong connections” in the State Department However, when
Kokoy received negative feedbacks on his efforts to make his sister crash into
the White House, he decided that the First Lady should make a big show
of contacting the dissident Filipino exiles. The “show” was expected to do the
trick in the program to stampede Ford into receiving Imelda. However, none of
the tricks resorted to by the First Lady or her sock-less brother ever worked on
Ford. But they never got bored being rejected by Ford.
There apparently are several reasons for the failure of the continuous
assault by the First Lady on Ford’s White House.* 7
(*7. Despite the visit made by President Ford to the Philippines in December, 1 975, the White
Flouse doors are still tightly-closed to Mrs. Marcos. The Ford visit should not be viewed as an
endorsement of the martial regime. Secretary of State Kissinger had himself leaked out to the
American media a story that the Philippines and Indonesia were included in the Ford safari thru
Asia in order to downgrade the importance of Ford's visit to Peking.)
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
One of them is that President Ford is not in favor of lending the prestige of his
office to totalitarian regimes, especially so in the case of countries which have
enjoyed expensive experiments in democracy at the expense of American
taxpayers and which experiments have been brought to naught by the whims
and caprices of home-grown tyrants. The other reason is said to be very
personal; that the First Lady, following a cue from President Marcos, had
snubbed Ford when he visited Manila some time ago as a minority leader in the
House of Representatives; that was before Ford became an appointive U.S.
Vice President and later as an appointive U.S. President. And then, Ford is said
to be wary that a visit by Imelda would necessarily include a chat with Mrs.
Betty Ford, an encounter that might contaminate Mrs. Ford with the ideas of
Imelda on jet-set parties and expensive junkets abroad and on meddling in the
affairs of state.
All the varied details and ramifications of the deceitful plan to get the First
Lady to hold a “reconciliation” conference with Manglapus and company, as
well as other aspects of the image-building project for the First Lady were
matters I have had to discuss for over a one-month period, three times a day,
over the transoceanic telephone with the man who now so urgently wants to
establish telephone contact with me. The sound of anticipation from the man
speaking at the other end of the line was discernible to me even 10,000 miles
away. After all, I have said an irritated “hello, yes” as I answered the intermittent
ringing of my room phone.
I recalled that the man who now wants to talk to me was a man who was
almost as thorough and as methodical as the President we both used to serve.
I have had occasion to discuss with him over the transoceanic telephone in
November, 1974, even such details of Mrs. Marcos’ trip involving the air trans-
portation to New York of a battalion of security agents belonging to the
Presidential Security Command and how they should be shielded from the
media people of New York. He would remind me over the phone that I should
be meticulous in misleading the Manglapus group on the number of free-riding
“Blue Ladies” and other government officials ordered to go to New York to
provide the “crowds” which would “adulate” Mrs. Marcos. Always, the man
would remind me that it was “the desire of the President” that Mrs. Marcos be
made very happy in New York and persuaded to stay there a little longer,
obviously to keep her off his back while the President undertook matters of
utmost concern to his own personal well-being.
This particular overseas phone caller and I were among a handful of the
closest assistants of Dictator-President Marcos. We had direct, unrestricted
access to the heavily-isolated dictator virtually 24 hours a day, although our
entry into the Marcos corridor of power was paved in different ways.
Although I was functioning strictly as a newspaperman, covering the
political beat for the now defunct Manila Chronicle, I worked closely beginning
the year 1963 with then Senate Minority Leader Ferdinand E. Marcos on
instructions of my publisher, the late Don Eugenio Lopez, Sr., the
acknowledged “President-maker” in the Philippines in those days. The reason
was that, as a political writer, I successfully convinced Lopez that then Senator
Marcos should be backed by the Lopez political-economic power in wresting
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
the Senate presidency in 1963 as he (Marcos) was the presidential timber
“best-equipped” to dislodge the incumbent President, Macapagal, in the 1965
presidential elections.* 8 Marcos eventually won the presidency in
1965, and won reelection in 1969, but I stayed on in my job as a newspaperman
with the Lopez empire.
(*8. See Chapter on “Too Late the Hero.”)
When Marcos and Lopez broke up their alliance in 1972, I chose to side
with Marcos, and was thus compelled to transfer to Marcos’ newly-established
newspaper, the Daily Express. Thus, even before the imposition of a dictatorial
martial regime, I found myself closely collaborating with Marcos in news
management under conditions of a still very free press in the Philippines. Upon
the imposition of martial law on September 21, 1972, I assumed the role of a
“media czar” for the regime with my election as President of the Malacanang-
controlled National Press Club of the Philippines, my assumption of the
position of chairman of the Media Advisory Council and my being held out
personally by President Marcos as the sole conduit between the military
government and the practicing media.
Considered a man “outside government,” I performed various functions for
President Marcos. I was generally accepted as an ex-officio member of the
Marcos Cabinet, having access to all Cabinet meetings and even closed-door
military briefings. While functioning as chief propagandist for Marcos, I also
served as a “Devil’s Advocate,” a role which I had taken to heart in my honest
belief that the imposition of martial law in the Philippines was a temporary
emergency measure “to save the Republic” from a Communist take-over. It was
my pursuit of the “Devil’s Advocate” role, which Marcos himself assigned
to me in view of my “non-official” status in the Palace, that eventually led to my
disenchantment with the regime. On a number of occasions, I have had to
denounce corruption and abuses of leaders of the defense and military
establishments, and somehow they managed to find out about my memoranda
to President Marcos on these matters. Some military officers actually proposed
that I be arrested and placed in the military stockade without prior notice to the
President on charges that I was a former staff member of the defunct Manila
Chronicle. However, the military establishment had it on good authority that I
was highly thought of by President Marcos and, in their view, it was politics not
to antagonize a man who had such an influential and powerful friend.
To be sure, there were early attempts on the part of the military’s Office for
Civil Relations to bring me within the pale of its emergency jurisdiction over
mass media.* 9 1 had invariably brushed off such attempts to make me clear my
(*9. See Chapter on “Era of Thought Control.”)
writings with the OCR with the statement that they have “presidential clear-
ance.” At that time, the military just didn’t know the role I was playing for the
martial regime. However, the OCR officers have heard about my easy access
to the President. One day in December, 1972, Colonel Noe S. Andaya, OCR
chief, felt called upon to summon me to the OCR office at Camp Aguinaldo. I
did consent to see Andaya but only after I had “cleared” my trip with the
President himself. Marcos asked one of his presidential assistants to monitor
my trip to the OCR office.
It turned out that Andaya wanted me to explain a piece I had written in my
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
column, “PM Views,” which was critical of Senator Gerardo A. Roxas, president
of the suspended opposition Liberal party. Andaya said it was “un-New Society”
of me to have assailed Roxas in the manner that I did. I answered him that that
particular column was “ordered” by President Marcos himself. As a matter of
fact, I told Andaya, a presidential assistant was waiting for a telephone call at
the Palace from the OCR chief so that he could authenticate my claim on who
ordered that the Roxas column be written the way it was published. Andaya did
make the call and he got his answer.
Later, the presidential assistant told me that he added a few more words
to this effect: “It is the President’s desire that you do not waste the time of Tibo
Mijares by asking him to explain to the military what stories the President had
ordered him to write.”
Andaya turned very apologetic later on. He stressed that it was not the
desire of the OCR to question the orders of the commander-in-chief of the
armed forces. The good colonel, who later on became a close personal friend,
explained that the OCR merely wanted to do its job of policing media.
I utilized my conference with Andaya to let him and the military know the
nature of propaganda work that I was doing for Marcos. Fortunately, I had with
me at the time some of the handwritten directives of President Marcos on what
columns I should write and what stories I should program for the Daily Express
and the other newspapers allowed to publish. I had with me President Marcos’
own handwritten “story ideas which I was supposed to stagger for the
Christmas holidays of 1972-1973. At that time, Marcos was already preparing
to cancel the scheduled plebiscite on the martial law Constitution (1 973) and to
call the first referendum among the barangays. I showed the handwritten notes
of the President to Andaya. After that conference, my stock with the military
soared to new heights. Andaya could only plead with me that I “let us in the
OCR know once in a while” what major news stories I would be farming out on
orders of the President “so that we can coordinate.” Andaya added that I really
would know best how to develop the column and news story ideas dictated by
the President.
The military, and subsequently the entire nation, were to accept as a matter
of course that anything that appeared under my by-line in the newspapers were
the “thoughts of Marcos.” The truth was that there was hardly any column I had
written which I cannot support with physical evidence of the handwritten
directive of Marcos on how a particular column should be written. Most of the
pieces I had written as news stories or columns about how excellent were the
thoughts, acts and deeds of Marcos were actually dictated by Marcos to me. I
was, therefore not a free agent when I wrote about the “thoughts of Marcos’” in
my columns in the Daily Express publications. My column was more generally
accepted as “President Marcos Views” and not as “Primitivo Mijares’ Views.
When Information Secretary Tatad suspended newspaper columns in April,
1973, the President ordered Tatad in writing the following day to reinstate “PM
Views” immediately.
I started entertaining second thoughts about my support and propaganda
work for Marcos towards the end of the year 1973. It is difficult to pinpoint the
exact point in time when I did. But it must have been right after December
30,1973, which was the day Marcos’ second and last term in office under the
1935 Constitution ended. At about that point in time, I began to realize
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
that Marcos imposed martial law, not to save the country from a Communist
rebellion and to reform society, but to hold on to the presidency for life — and
as a dictator. I decided then that I would have to eventually jump Marcos’ ship.
However, I felt that I could not dissociate myself quietly from the Marcos re-
gime. I somehow had to make public my rebellion against Marcos’ plan to
become the Philippine ruler for life. The Filipino people never gave Marcos a
mandate to rule for life when they elected him to the presidency in 1965. I
wanted to perpetuate into the records of history the machinations of a man
dead-set on becoming a dictator in his own country.
When I felt I was ready to defect from the Marcos regime, I contacted a
worthy ally, former Evening News man Cris D. Kabasares and asked him to tell
Alex A. Esclamado, editor-publisher of the Philippine News, about my plans.
Cris wrote under his by-line the story of my defection on February 20,1 975.
I was not expecting any telephone call that late night of June 1 6,1 975, as I
have already parted company with Proculo Rodriguez, Jr. who had
accompanied me earlier in the evening for dinner at the residence of a friend,
Betty S. Torres, at Silver Spring in Maryland. The only man who could
conceivably call me at that late hour was Cristobal Manalo, former legal coun-
sellor at the Philippine embassy “fired" by Marcos in September, 1 972, because
he was an “Iglesia ni Kristo” * 10 member. However, he could not have known
(* 10 . A highly-politicized religious sect, established by Bishop Felix Manalo before World War
II, the INK supported Marcos to a man in the 1965 and 1969 elections. When he no longer needed
their support after the 1969 elections, Marcos started classifying the INK people, along with the
Lopezes, as unscrupulous oligarchic pressure groups. See also capter on “Twilight of Democracy”
for an account on the battle for custody of the INK radio station complex in Quezon City.)
where I was billeted at the time. I must confess though that, during the almost
four months preceding this trip of mine to Washington, D.C., I have
stood most of the time in morbid fear that a telephone call such as the one I am
now called upon to receive might just intrude into my life. I was irritated that a
phone call would somehow interrupt me at the time of my study of a speech,
the preparation for which has just been as long as the fear I have entertained
that that kind of telephone call might come. For the phone call turned out
precisely to be about that speech I was studying in my room at the Mid-Town
Motor Inn in Washington, D.C.
The phone call came at that point in time when, while reviewing my speech,
I was recollecting the circumstances of an earlier visit to Washington, D.C., and
comparing them with the reason for my current trip. Somehow I could establish
a link. The fare I used for my flight from San Francisco to Washington, D.C.
was the unused return portion of my plane ticket which was issued to me in
Manila when I left the Philippines on October 21, 1974, to pursue my mission
for the First Lady. I recalled that it was the First Lady who ordered me to fly to
Washington, D.C. from New York on the night of November 18, 1974, to help
out in “rescue” operations for Ambassador Eduardo Romualdez who was then
being held hostage by Lechoco inside the chancery. Having been informed
earlier that Lechoco was a former newsman, Mrs. Marcos decided that I should
rush to Washington, D.C. and try to establish a dialogue with the ambassador’s
captor. It seems that Kokoy who had flown earlier from New York had called up
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
the First Lady that he had been unsuccessful thus far in establishing any
contact with “Nap.” Marita Manuel, a staff writer of the Daily Express assigned
to the press corps of the First Lady, contacted me at the Hotel Roosevelt suite
of National Media Director Gregorio S. Cendana where members of the support
groups for the First Lady’s New York trip then had converged on hearing about
the siege in the Philippine embassy in Washington, D.C. But before I boarded
the 9 p.m. commuter flight of the Eastern Airlines out of La Guardia airport, I
took time out to place an overseas call to the man who, on this night of June
16,1975, wanted to talk to me by overseas phone. I told him briefly about the
siege at the Philippine embassy, and then warned him that the First Lady’s mind
was being poisoned by some courtesans to the effect that “Nap” Lechoco was
his protege, and that, as a matter of fact, Mrs. Marcos had asked me for his
home phone number at New Manila in Quezon City, presumably to give him a
call and initially mark him for the needed immolation for the predicament that
had befallen her cousin, the ambassador. Thus, when the First Lady’s call came
through to the house of this man, he was ready with a believable reason that
obviously saved him from premature political damnation by the conjugal
dictatorship in the Philippines.
These things flashed so fast in my mind, even as I held my Mid-Town Motel
room phone receiver and heard the Manila overseas operator courteously cut
off the caller from the Manila end: “Just a moment, Mr. Secretary. . . Sir, this is
an overseas call from Secretary De Vega. Are you Mr. Mijares?” I answered
hesitantly, but managed to say, “Yes, this is he.” Then I heard another familiar
voice, which I can identify anytime anywhere as that of Agent Arturo Boquiren,
of President Marcos’ Study Room communication cubicle, stating: “Doc,
na’andito na si Mr. Mijares . . . hold the line, sir.”
My overseas conversation with Presidential Assistant Guillermo C. De
Vega and his principal was reported to the outside world in the widely-
syndicated column, “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” of Jack Anderson and Les
Whitten, on July 2,1975, thus:
“MARCOS TRIED BRIBING WITNESS”
WASHINGTON — President Ferdinand Marcos, the Philippines’
strongman, offered a witness a $50,000 bribe the other day not to testify on
Capitol Hill about corruption and tyranny in the Philippines.
The witness, Marcos’ former press censor Primitivo Mijares, was
prepared to tell the uncensored story of the Marcos regime to a House
international relations subcommittee.
ON THE EVE of his testimony, Mijares received a personal call from
Marcos in Manila urging him not to testify. Then an aide got on the phone
and offered him the $50,000.
The money actually was deposited in a San Francisco branch of Lloyds
Bank of California in the names of Primitivo Mijares and Ambassador
Trinidad Alconcel, the Philippines’ consul general. Thus Mijares couldn’t
withdraw the $50,000 until the consul general counter-signed the check.
Mijares not only went ahead with his testimony but informed Chairman
Don Fraser, D.-Minn., of the bribe attempt. Fraser’s office notified the
Justice Department, which is investigating.
WE HAVE confirmed that $50,000 was deposited in the names of both
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Mijares and Alconcel in savings account No. 0662-46062 at Lloyds Bank of
California. The bank’s records show that Alconcel removed Mijares’ name
from the joint account on June 18, the day after Mijares testified.
By Mijares’ account, he simply became disgusted with Marcos and
sought asylum in the United States. An approach was made in May to
persuade him to come home. A colonel in Marcos’ presidential guard,
Romeo Ochoco, looked up Mijares in San Francisco.
OVER COFFEE and doughnuts in a 24-hour restaurant, they talked
about a book that Mijares is writing about the Marcos dictatorship. He plans
to call it “The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda.”
The colonel was soothing. “He said Marcos would talk to me about my
complaints,” recalled Mijares. But the former press censor felt he knew
Marcos too well to trust him.
The colonel’s visit was followed by a series of telephone calls from
Ambassador Alconcel, who had heard that Mijares would be a star witness
at Fraser’s hearings on U.S. -Philippines problems.
The consul general tried to persuade Mijares not to testify and, when
Mijares refused, to “pull the punches.” In return, the former censor was
promised that Manila would “help” him.
HE FLEW TO Washington, nevertheless, to testify and checked into a
downtown Washington motel. Not long afterward, on June 16, he received
a call from Manila.
“It was Marcos,” Mijares told us. “He started out by calling me by my
nickname, ‘Tibo.’ He asked me not to testify, because of what it would do to
his ‘new society’.
“I told him it would be difficult to back out since I was already under the
committee’s jurisdiction. He told me his assistant would tell me something,
that they had something for me.”
Then presidential aide Guillermo de Vega got on the line, according to
Mijares, and began speaking in a mixture of Tagalog and Spanish to
confuse possible wire tappers. The aide said $50,000 would be awaiting
Mijares in San Francisco if he didn’t testify. But if he went ahead with his
testimony, warned the aide, it would be a “declaration of war.”
MIJARES HELD firm. Two hours before he was scheduled to take the
stand, he received a call from Alconcel imploring him not to testify and
reiterating that the money would be on hand in San Francisco.
But the onetime censor, having renounced his former way of life, took
the witness chair and testified in detail about vote fraud, corporate theft,
payoffs, illegal jailings and general corruption.
Mijares laid all these crimes right at the door of Marcos, his family and
cronies. Nor did Mijares spare himself in his testimony.
Now he is trying to convince U.S. immigration authorities that there is a
place in the United States for a newspaperman on the run from
totalitarianism.
In compliance with a suggestion from John M. Salzberg, staff consultant to
the House Committee on International Relations, I prepared an affidavit
Primitivo Mijares
Page Z<Z>
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
detailing the circumstances of the bribe offer and submitted it to the
committee.* 11
(*11. Executed on July 10, 1975, in San Francisco and verified by Bernard Baylocq, a notary
public.)
7. That at about eleven ’clock in the evening of June 16,1975, EST,
while I was reviewing my opening statement to be given to the Committee,
I received an overseas telephone call from Manila. The person at the other
end turned out to be my very good friend and former colleague at the
Malacanang Palace, Presidential Assistant Guillermo De Vega. He told me
he was calling from thestudy room of President Marcos and that the
President wanted to talk to me. Our telephone conversation, as far as I can
recall, went on as follows, after the usual amenities:
SECRETARY DE VEGA: “Tibo, gusto kang makausap ni Sir. (Tibo, Sir
[meaning President Marcos] wants to talk to you.)
PRESIDENT MARCOS: “Tibo, puede bang huwag ka nang sumipot sa
Komiteng ’yan? Alarn mo, marami na tayong problema dito. Baka
madagdagan mo pa. Mabuti pa ay bumalik ka na kaagad sa San Francisco. ”
(Tibo, would it be possible for you not to appear before the Committee? Your
testifying may add more to our problems. It would be better if you returned
to San Francisco immediately.)
MIJARES: “But, sir, there is no way I can back out now. I have already
placed myself under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee.”
PRESIDENT MARCOS: “Here is Gimo (Secretary De Vega) and he has
something to tell you.” (Then transferring the telephone to Secretary De
Vega.)
SECRETARY DE VEGA: “Tibo, bumatsi kana diyan and Trining will
arrange for you ‘cinquenta’ in San Francisco.” (Tibo, I suggest you get out
of that place right now and return immediately to San Francisco where
Ambassador Trinidad Alconcel will arrange ‘Fifty’ for you.)
MIJARES: “Mogs, (a nickname I use in addressing Secretary De Vega)
hindi na puede. Nasabi ko na sa Komite na nandito na ako sa Washington.
I have to testify.” (Secretary De Vega, it is impossible now to withdraw. I
have already informed the Committee that I am now in Washington, D.C.)
SECRETARY DE VEGA: “lyong figure ay libo. (The figure are
thousands.) And you will get another Fifty (meaning Fifty Thousand Dollars)
when you leave the United States. Since you may not want to come home
to Manila, you may want to go to Australia to be with your sister. We will
send you another Fifty upon your arrival there.”
MIJARES: Salamat na lang, Mogs. Pero, hindi kita puedeng
mapagbigyan. (Thank you anyway, Secretary De Vega, but I cannot accede
to your suggestion.)
SECRETARY DE VEGA: “I will not accept your negative answer now.
Pag-aralan mong mabuti iyan, Tibo. (Consider this proposal carefully.) You
know very well that, if you testify that would mean a Declaration of War on
your part against us here.”
MIJARES: “I realize that, and you can be sure I will act accordingly.
Goodbye, Doc.”
SECRETARY DE VEGA: "Sigue na, Tibo. (All right, Tibo.) Take care of
Primitivo Mijares Page 2.7
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
yourself. Trining (Ambassador Trinidad Alconcel) will contact you.”
8. That, at about 8:45 A.M. EST of Tuesday, June 17,1975 (5:45 A.M.
San Francisco time), the day of my scheduled testimony before
Congressman Fraser’s Committee, I received a long distance call from
Ambassador Trinidad Alconcel from San Francisco. Alconcel, in so many
words, made me understand that he had received instructions from
President Marcos to give me Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) which he
has been authorized to draw from the Philippine National Bank Agency in
San Francisco. Presuming that I would no longer testify before the
Committee, Alconcel asked me to take the first available plane to San
Francisco so that he could deliver the money to me. I told him that I could
not change my plans anymore, even if I wanted to. How-ever, he insisted
that he was going to the Philippine National Bank the first hour that morning
to arrange everything. Then he hung up.
In dangling the $50,000.00 for my non-testimony and another $50,000.00
for my departure from the United States, President Marcos was obviously quite
sure that he was making me an offer I would hardly be able to refuse. Yes,
every man has his price. I have just been offered mine, and the dictatorial
regime that goes by the false facade of sponsor of a New Society in the
Philippines could sit serene, insured for the price of $100,000.00 against a
damaging expose' by an insider in a forum where the New Society would get
hurt most.
Either by oversight or some providential happening, the martial regime of
Marcos miscalculated; it failed to reckon with that little possibility that I might
also be influenced by the high fallutin’ principle that there are things in this life
which are more precious than gold, like the duty and obligation I owe to myself,
my family, my profession, my country and its history.
Dictator Marcos was so sure. He had been assured by his consul general
in San Francisco, Alconcel, that I have softened and ripened for a bribe four
months after my dramatic defection from the Philippine government. Alconcel
had surreptitiously interviewed my close confidants in San Francisco, among
them being Lino Sarmiento and Crisostomo D. Ibarra, and he had gathered the
valuable information that I was now living in a state of utter penury, unable to
meet my obligations, let alone my requirements for my daily bread. The reports
that have reached Marcos in Manila through Alconcel were correct in a certain
sense. And so, they thought, I was ripe for the picking. My situation was,
however, more in the nature of being impecunious.
Having operated as a man and as a leader of men on terms so
unconscionable by any yardstick, Marcos obviously overlooked the possibility
that any man, even I, could harken to the voice of conscience — as I did. One
such voice of conscience that I will always treasure in my life is that of Antonio
Garcia, a colleague in the newspaper game in the days before martial law
and now information officer of the Movement for a Free Philippines. 12 When I
bade Tony goodbye on June 1 5, 1 975, as I prepared to fly from San Francisco
to Washington, D.C., he gave me a most valued pep talk, thus: “Padre, you
have an appointment with history; our suffering countrymen will emblazon in
bold letters their gratitude to you for what you will do in Wash-
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
ington, D.C.” *12
(* 12 . Garcia was delegated by Manglapus in early November, 1974, to hold talks with me in
New York on my proposal for a meeting between MFP leaders and Mrs. Marcos. With advise from
Hermie Rotea, who knew how I operated in Manila as a newsman, Garcia opposed the proposed
conference between Mrs. Marcos and Manglapus, behind closed-doors; he demanded that it be
held in public. Kokoy rejected the proposal that the conference be opened to the U.S.
news media.)
I had already made a choice — even before such choice was ever
presented to me in concrete and tempting terms by that overseas phone call
from President Marcos. I restated this choice — or decision — almost a month
before my scheduled testimony before two persons who would fully appreciate
such a decision on my part. They were D. H. Soriano and Juan A. Perez,
chairman of the board and publisher, respectively, of the Daily Express for
which I worked as a reporter-columnist from March, 1972, until my defection in
the United States.
“D.H.” and “Johnny” had sought me out in late May in San Francisco on
their own, having come in from New York where they negotiated certain
contracts for the Daily Express. They were not about to negotiate with me to go
home; rather, they wanted to satisfy themselves that a personal friend, their
ace reporter, was at least in good shape and knew what he was doing. As a
matter of fact, D.H. and Johnny made it plain that they would respect my wishes
to be left alone if I didn’t want to meet them at all — when they requested that
I be put in touch with them by Ms. Lourdes Poblete, widow of the late newsman
Augusto Poblete, who is now employed as a family health worker by the City
and County of San Francisco. Over cups of coffee at Naper T andy’s of the Hyatt
Hotel on Union Square, I assured them that I am still able to keep body and
soul together.
“Would it not be better if you abandoned what you are doing now and come
to terms with the President? I am sure the old man would welcome you back.”
Johnny suggested.
I answered D.H. and Johnny in the language we three fully understood as
newspapermen. I happen to have a “scoop,’ I said, “a big story.” I then posed
the question to my two former colleagues in the Philippines: If you, as
newspapermen, have an exclusive story of wide public interest, would you sit
on it as you are now advising me to do in this case? I really got the
newspapermen in D.H. and Johnny. They looked at me with just one question
on their faces. What do you mean, Tibo?
And so I reminded them of things they themselves knew very well, about
my relationship with President Marcos and the female half of the ruling
duumvirate in the Philippines. Of course, D.H. and Johnny both knew this more
than anybody else. They knew that, as a reporter-columnist of the Daily Ex-
press, I had devoted more time to serving the President as a propagandist and
press censor than in actually earning my pay in the newspaper. Although there
were different managements, I knew I was serving the interests of one entity
anyway; President Marcos owns the Daily Express. Both D.H. and Johnny
knew that I was “that close” to the First Family; I could enter his inner sanctum
at any time, except when he was doing very personal things.
Primitivo Mijares
Page Z9
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The Philippine News* 13 put it more succinctly this way in reporting on my
defection: (1 3. Issue of Feb. 2027, 1975, page 1.)
Mijares is the only private newsman — as a matter of fact among the
few persons — who could go in and out of the Palace Study, room and
talk to the President without having to go through frisking by security
agents. He does not have to have a prior appointment — as most people
who want to see the President are required to submit to these days.
As a matter of fact, Mijares displays a “blue pass” personally
handwritten by Marcos requiring him to be with the President from the time
the first presidential caller comes in the morning until the dictator retires
for his afternoon nap.
Mijares wangled the hand-written “blue pass” because he has to
consult the President on topics for his daily tri-lingual column, “PM Views,”
which had come to be known as “President Marcos’ Views.”
It is widely known in Manila that Mijares became National Press Club
president upon the suggestion of Marcos who wanted to keep an eye on
the media people, most of whom the Philippine dictator had labelled as
“subversives” or “enemies of the state” for their critical writings on his pre-
martial law government. Marcos even strengthened Mijares’ hand by
naming him the MAC chairman.
It was in his capacity as MAC chairman that Mijares once had to act
as hatchet man for Marcos in investigating Arnold Zeitlin, bureau manager
of the “Associated Press” in Manila, for Zeitlin’s reporting on the rebellion
of the Muslims in southern Philippines.
Both D.H. and Johnny knew the unique and special role have had to
perform for the conjugal dictatorship in Malacanang. Having fortunately walked
the corridors of power in the official seat of the powerful duumvirate, I became
privy and witness to the sinister manipulation of one man and his schem
ing wife during a dark hour in the tragic life of my country. This was my scoop,
my exclusive story. I owe this story not only to myself as a newspaperman; I
owe it to my suffering family which I have had to temporarily deny my fatherly
love and attention in my pursuit of my rendezvous with history; I owe it
to my country and its correct history. I set my appointment with history when I
defected from the dictatorial regime of Marcos on February 20,1975.1 feel I
must continue to honor my commitment to history. I consider this a sacred duty,
the performance of which should put my country’s history in its proper
perspective in order that it can render its just and unflinching verdict on the
power grab pulled by Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos in the Philippines on
September 21, 1972.
It was with this tone of conversation that I bade goodbye to D.H. and
Johnny at Naper Tandy’s that afternoon. “What we are really interested in
finding out,” reiterated D.H., “is that you are okay.” “Take good care of yourself,
Tibo.
If I had a terrific story like yours, and if I had the credentials to tell it as
you have, I would certainly do just what you seem determined to do,” Johnny
declared in the true newspaperman’s way. “Just make sure, Tibo, you don’t
Primitivo Mijares Page 30
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
salsal * I * * * * * * * * * * * * 14 your story.”
(*14. The literal meaning of this word in English is “masturbation.” However, as it has been
developed as Filipino newsman’s lingo, it means over-embellishment, or complete concoction, of a
news story to make it appear plausible.)
“Johnny, there is no need to salsal. My difficulty is how to confine everything
I know in 500 printed pages,” I quipped.
For D.H. and Johnny, my task was simplified into a case of a newsman
writing a “scoop.” However, for my friend and now suffering comrade, Antonio
Garcia, my upcoming testimony before the Subcommittee on International
Organizations, of the House Committee on International Relations, was my
fateful appointment with history.
I prepared for that appointment with history. Earlier, Salzberg informect me
that I would have 15 minutes to read a prepared statement before the
committee, which is chaired by Rep. Donald M. Fraser (D-Minn.), when I testify
on June 17,1975, as the rest of the time would be utilized by the committee
members to question witnesses. I realized that 15 minutes would be too short
for me to be able to spell out the lurid details of the story of an evil man’s lifetime
planning to become his country’s first dictator. Would it be possible to submit a
lengthy memorandum which I could submit to the committee as an integral part
of my testimony? Fortunately, Salzberg answered that it would be perfectly all
right. I then decided to look at my forthcoming testimony before the Fraser
committee as an opportunity to make public an outline of the book I have
promised myself upon defection that I would write for posterity, not as a money-
making venture.
Questions are, of course, being raised why I “jumped from the banig to the
sah/g.* 15
(*15. This is a take-off from a Tagalog saying, which runs: Umalis sa banig at lumundag sa
sahig. The figurative meaning is that one who was wallowing in luxury or something good
abandoned it for a worse or uncertain lot.)
I have answered this by stating that what I am trying to do is to protect the
integrity and patrimony of the country from the merciless plundering by Marcos
and his gang. In civil law, the children have the right and obligation to take court
action against their own parents to protect their legitime from being impaired by
the improvident spending of their parents. It was in this spirit that I took the
actions I did on February 20,1975, and other occasions. I will persevere in this
course of action. I spelled this out in my defection statement of February 20, to
wit:
History fated me to bear witness at very close range, and even
champion, the imposition by President Marcos of martial law in the
Philippines on September 21,1972, ostensibly to suppress an escalating
Communist rebellion and to establish a New Society.
As Malacanang reporter of the Daily Express (which is owned by the
President’s family), I became among Dictator Marcos’ mere handful of
trusted confidants at the onset of martial law. As a media man, it then fell on
my lot to support and justify the imposition of martial law; on my shoulders
were entrusted an intensive and continuing campaign to bend the Filipino’s
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
mind toward accepting what the one-time defendant in a murder case
for the cold-blooded shooting of a political rival of his father had decreed. I
saw myself as nothing less than Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph
Goebbels, with oft-times more powers and prerogatives than Marcos’ own
docile, self-serving and egotistical information secretary, Francisco S.
Tatad.
But I needed no convincing about the justice of FM’s cause. Having
covered Philippine Congresses and Philippine Presidents from the
proclamation of Philippine Independence on July 4, 1946, I could see that
what we started out to do was in the right direction. With the spreading
violence and upheavals in the old Philippine social and economic structure,
martial law seemed the only way for the salvation of my poor and ravished
country and people. In a word, this patriotic task assigned to me by history,
I did with all the honesty and sincerity of feeling I could muster.
But now, also with equal, nay, even more honesty and sincerity, I find I
must sever my bonds with the so-called New Society. The false facade is
off; the mask that is the “smiling martial law” irreversibly shorn off the face
of its author, and the real appearance of what after all is a stern despotism
is bared for all to see. President Marcos has, wittingly or unwittingly,
consciously or unconsciously, digressed and treasonably betrayed — with
the full and gleeful collaboration of top associates and relatives, mostly in-
laws — the avowed objectives that we originally set out to do more than two
years ago. By their rapacity and unbridled appetite for political and economic
power, Marcos and his gang has transformed the terms “New Society” and
“Bagong Lipunan” into “New Scandal” and “Bagong Likuman,” respectively,
to fit into a parodied term of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago”
into a dreaded version of a Philippines’ “Gulangan Archipelago.”
In due time, I shall have the occasion to bare the gory and intimate
details, as only a trusted (erstwhile) insider could have gleaned, of the
notorious scandal going on in the Philippines that would make Watergate a
drop in the bucket and President Nixon a piker placed side by side with
Marcos. As an insider, I must cry out with all the vehement protest I could
muster that the martial regime of Marcos was nothing but an ill-disguised
plot to perpetuate himself, his wife and/or son in power by consolidating the
political and economic resources of the country under his control. What
President Marcos is doing in the Philippines, it has now dawned on me, is
in accordance with a long-studied, methodically prepared plan to take over
an entire country politically and economically for himself, his family and his
cronies, preparatory to setting up an empire. And for all this, Marcos has
jailed innocent people, on fabricated charges, ranging from alleged
economic opportunism to plotting his assassination. Incidentally, I know
for a fact, as I have gleaned from investigative reports to which I have gained
access, that there is no iota of evidence about the Mafia having goofed eight
times in having Marcos killed; much less is there any evidence that would
link anybody now in military custody to any attempt on the life of the
President. I shall be dealing on these points in the coming weeks, and with
other matters involving the manipulation of the Supreme Court and the
Constitutional Convention, all to suit Dictator Marcos’ objectives.
Since the moment of my decision to severe ties with Marcos comes on
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
the eve of the holding of a multi-million peso farcical affair blatantly purveyed
as the Philippine referendum, I must dwell on this point immediately. The
referendum is going to be a farce; the results are a foregone conclusion. Not
even all the patriotism and honesty of Commission on Elections Chairman
Leonardo B. Perez can stop the gang of Marcos from reporting that the
people voted overwhelmingly for the continuation of the martial law
administration. I know whereof I speak. I was one of the few persons who
fabricated the results of the referenda held in January, 1973, and in June-
July, 1973.
Having made my decision to disengage from, and eventually expose the
ills of the Marcos military dictatorship, I must, at the same time, beg the
forgiveness of some good men within the Philippine government for whom I
have nothing but admiration and goodwill. I wish they would take some risks
in the interest of return of democracy in the Philippines — as with this step
I now make.
This step I now take, knowing that it transcends all personal and official
consideration, risking as I now do even the very lives of my wife and children
in the Philippines. With this step, I must abandon my country temporarily
and seek asylum in the United States of America along with my associate,
Atty. Crisostomo D. Ibarra.
For I must now cry out to articulate the anguished cries of sorrow and
pain of the millions of oppressed and dispossessed Filipinos. Having lost
their civil liberties at the onset of martial law, they are now in grave danger
of losing their hard-earned patrimony in the hands of the rampaging Dictator
Marcos and his gang.
I might have added — but found it unnecessary to state — that I was
probably naive to think that in the changed situation in the Philippines, as in the
martial law situation, ideals would prevail, not realizing early enough that, as
authoritarian regimes go, the ruling clique must perforce get the lion’s share of
everything.
I have tried to explain fully the rationale, as well as my sorrow and regrets,
for the present course of action I am taking in a document which I hope would
reach my family and my countrymen in the Philippines someday, although I
have doubts if most of them would ever understand my motives, considering
that the martial regime’s propaganda machine had launched an over-kill
campaign to destroy my image and credibility with what is known as “black
propaganda.”
To my mind, the point that should be grasped is not whether I am a good
or bad man, but whether I tell the truth about the martial regime in the
Philippines. Most of the things I have said — and now write about extensively
— have been or are matters of public knowledge among the people of the
Philippines. I am just here providing some heretofore unknown, but
logically-acceptable links to fit things into the Marcos jig-saw puzzle of perfidy
in my country.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 33
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Chapter II
‘Manila-Gate’
“For a foreign head of state to attempt to bribe a
congressional witness is unprecedented. The amazing
story began a few months ago when Mijares walked out of
Malacanang, the presidential palace, after three years as
Marcos’ confidant and propagandist.”
Thus read a key portion of the widely-syndicated “Washington Merry-Go-
Round" column of July 2, 1 975. * 1
(* 1 . Washington Post , Page F-ll. The New York Daily Post published in its July 3, 1975, issue
an editorial on the same subject, entitled “Manila-Gate.”)
How true it is that Washington, D.C. has always been a situs for airing, and
even violent settlement, of disputes between opposing factions of certain
foreign governments. It is a favorite hunting ground for foreign governments in
their recruitment of American senators and congressmen who might be willing
to make trips to their countries where the special guests could be wooed with
wine, women and whatever. The general idea is to improve the attitude of U.S.
solons towards a beleaguered foreign government which might be having a bad
image in official Washington or in the U.S. mass media.
One of those established by Washington, D.C. observers as notorious for
his massive lobbying campaign in the U.S. capital was Dominican Dictator
Rafael Trujillo who had earned such a bad image of corruption and repression
in his country at one time. However, it has been reported that Trujillo’s bribery
and entertainment in the homeland, and the highly effective representation
made by his ambassador have also succeeded in bringing about an
improvement of the Trujillo image in Washington, D.C.
In another area of counter-lobbying in the U.S. capital, agents of opposing
foreign interests have resorted to assassinations in pursuit of their objectives.
One victim of such assassinations was Colonel Yosef Alon, military attache of
the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., who was gunned down on July 1,
1973, by a group of assailants who escaped by car in the Maryland area. The
Voice of Palestine Radio in Cairo subsequently claimed that Alon had been
executed by their agents in reprisal for an assassination a few days earlier of
an alleged Palestinian Black September representative in Paris.
Philippine lobbying in Washington, D.C. as well as its Trujillo-like penchant
for wooing visiting American officials has not received much denunciatory
notices from the U.S. press. Obviously, much more attention has been
concentrated on the authoritarian government which President Marcos
imposed in Manila on the eve of the conclusion of his constitutionally-
allowable eight-year hold on the Philippine presidency.
It is a fact that the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda in the
Primitivo Mijares Page 34
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Philippines is one of the more notorious lobbyists in Washington, D.C. There
was even a time when a Philippine ambassador, now Leyte Gov. Benjamin
“Kokoy” Romualdez, a brother of Mrs. Marcos, resorted to adobo diplomacy by
regularly distributing once a week to selected American senators and
congressmen, and state department officials adobo * 2 to-go. When Mrs.
Marcos heard about her ambassador-brother’s yeoman intestinal diplomacy in
Washington, D.C., she even sent Kokoy a Filipino cook to enable him to pursue
and expand his adobo diplomacy.
(*2. A Filipino dish of either pork or chicken, or both, cooked in vinegar and sauce, with
crushed garlic, black pepper and bay leaf.)
The duumvirate wielding the powers of government in Manila have not
spared anything in going all-out to woo visiting dignitaries, especially those of
the U.S. brand. Expenditures running into millions of dollars were unnecessarily
incurred to put up a so-called “spontaneous” one-million crowd welcome
for visiting President and Mrs. Gerald Ford in Manila; the money presumably
coming from the $100 million foreign aid the United States doles out to the
Philippines yearly.
On one occasion in 1973, the conjugal leaders in Manila broke precedent
by tendering a state dinner, an honor usually reserved for visiting ranking
officials of foreign governments, for Washington Post Publisher Katherine
Graham and a team of staff writers. But the wining and dining did not influence
the Graham team; it wrote objectively on the Philippine situation with the same
seriousness that the Washington Post has chronicled the story of the Nixon
Watergate saga. When clippings of the Post’s were telexed to Malacanang,
Mrs. Marcos ruefully stated that she and President Marcos obviously wasted
their time, money and effort on the Graham team.
The lobbying by Marcos in Washington, D.C. and in Manila for his New
Society among U.S. officials has not chalked up much success. Thus, he
became more apprehensive when he learned that I, his former confidant, would
“tell all” before a committee of the U.S. Congress. So, he tried on a new tack
— a $1 00,000-bribe offer.
In a rare display of great interest and faith in the story of a foreign chief of
state attempting to bribe a witness of the United States Congress, Jack
Anderson agreed with his associate, Les Whitten, that a second column coming
up on July 3,1 975, was in order. That follow-up “Washington Merry-Go-Round”
column read thus:
“EX-AIDE REVEALS MARCOS’ CORRUPTION”
WASHINGTON — Yesterday we reported that Philippine President
Ferdinand Marcos offered a former confidant, Primitivo Mijares, a $50,000
bribe not to tell the U.S. Congress what he knows about corruption in the
Philippines.
Today we can reveal the story that Marcos tried to cover up. It is
another Watergate scandal, Philippine version — a story of highcrimes and
misdemeanors, ranging from abuse of power to misuse of government
funds.
Primitivo Mijares Page 3 5
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The story is told in a 24-page memo, which Mijares submitted to the
House International Organizations subcommittee. In the memo, he freely
confesses his own dirty work for Marcos.
The memo details how Marcos won reelection in 1969 using some
of the same tactics that Richard Nixon picked up in 1972. Mijares describes
the Marcos campaign as “the dirtiest election ever held in the Philippines.”
Marcos used “goons, guns and gold,” his former confidant charges,
to win the 1969 election. The strategy was to create an atmosphere of
disturbance, which called for Marcos’ strong hand to control.
The Philippine President, according to the memo, “had military
personnel infiltrate the ranks of demonstrators to explode bombs in their
midst and to instigate the demonstrators into committing acts of violence.”
Philippine air force infiltrators allegedly lobbed “heavy explosives in
front of the (U.S.) consular offices,” and “armed forces psychological warfare
units’ conducted bombings on Manila’s water system, city hall and the
bathroom of the Constitutional Convention.” The violence was “later blamed
by Mr. Marcos on the Maoist People’s Army.”
The incidents that Marcos secretly encouraged, Mijares alleges,
had their innocent victims. When a bomb exploded inside a department
store, for example, “a family man who was buying a gift for a child observing
its birthday was blown to bits." A conscience-stricken police sergeant later
confessed he had planted the bomb on superior orders, claims Mijares.
To improve his press notices, Marcos allowed “heavy borrowings
from the Philippine Bank,” according to the memo, so a toady could buy up
a “media empire.” Allegedly the pro-Marcos media even collected “part of
their salaries . . . from the President’s contingent fund.”
These tactics worked so well, charges Mijares, that the reelected
Marcos continued using them to take over dictatorial power. Under the
Philippine constitution, Marcos was limited to two terms, but he had no
intention of retiring.
He continued to whip up a crisis fever. He staged “a supposed
landing of combat weapons,” for example, “along the coast of Digoyo.”
Mijares claims the weapons were planted by “a special operations groups
of trusted military men,” but Marcos loudly blamed “a foreign power” and
“Maoist guerrillas.”
There was also a faked ambush, Mijares charges, involving a
Philippine official's car. By exploiting these incidents, Marcos had the
country psychologically ready for his proclamation of martial law on
September 21, 1972.
With a great show of benevolence, he proclaimed a so-called
“smiling martial law.” He quickly restored order and gave the citizenry respite
from turmoil. But he also closed down opposition newspapers and jailed
recalcitrant editors and rivals.
Marcos asked a Constitutional Convention to put a stamp of
legitimacy upon his dictatorship. But when the delegates showed a little
independence, the memo states, he “caused the arrest and detention in
military stockades of delegates” and “bribed floor leaders of the convention
with money and favors.”
To make doubly sure the convention gave Marcos the powers he
Primitivo Mijares Page 36
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
wanted, alleges Mijares, the results “were manufactured by a group headed
by the President’s favorite brother-in-law, Gov. Benjamin Romualdez.”
Mijares had personal knowledge that the convention vote was
rigged, he writes, because “I was a member of that group.” Just as John
Dean later confessed his role in the Nixon scandals, Mijares describes how
he ordered the takeover of a newspaper, investigated an Associated Press
reporter, prepared phony stories on revolutionaries and committed other
outrages on Marcos’ orders.
The Mijares memo then tells how Marcos’ “military regime has gone
absolutely corrupt.” The dictator parcelled out to his cronies the licenses to
smuggle in luxury goods and to smuggle out sugar, copra, lumber and
cement, charges Mijares. Military supporters have been given fabulously
lucrative rackets in Manila to run as they please, he adds.
Through front men, according to Mijares, Marcos has taken over
agricultural lands in northern Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. He also
allegedly controls oil concessions, a huge export business, a free trade zone
in Mariveles and even a claim on some buried World War II Japanese
treasure in the Sierra Madre.
Mijares also claims that Marcos has misused some of the $100
million in U.S. aid he gets each year. The greatest part of U.S. medical aid,
for example, “goes to the United Drug Company, the biggest pharmaceutical
firm in the country which is owned by a front man of the President,” alleges
the memo.
Yet the U.S. State Department, swears Mijares, has thwarted
Marcos’ democratic opponents by supporting “the Philippine martial
regime.”
Alerted by the one-two punch delivered by the hard-hitting syndicated
columnists Anderson and Whitten, major newspapers and news agencies in
the United States and all over the world sought follow up stories on the expose
from whatever quarters or sources they could. News agencies, notably the “As-
sociated Press” and the “United Press International,” flashed their follow up
stories world-wide. Great interest in the follow up stories which anybody could
supply was evinced particularly by the newspapers which carry the Anderson
column. Among the articles that came to our attention were those writ-
ten by newsman Dan Gordon* 3 and newsperson Molly Burrell.* 4 Gordon’s
front-page article in the Nevada State Journal is typical of the press coverage
of the bribery expose.
(*3. Nevada State Journal, of Reno, Nevada, July 5, 1975, Page 1 headliner.
*4. Independent, Press Telegram, of Long Beach, California, July 13, 1975, Page B-15.)
However interesting the story on Marcos’ reprehensible attempt to bribe a
congressional witness turned out to be, there just wasn’t enough space in the
columns of Anderson or in the news stories to cram the intimate and lurid details
of the bribery episode, or the gory reasons for the dastardly attempt of a
foreign chief of state to commit a federal crime on American soil.
I myself didn’t have enough time to tell the U.S. Congress earlier what I
really had to tell about the dark night of totalitarianism that has engulfed my
Primitivo Mijares
Page 37
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
hapless country. I could do it in only eight pages of prepared testimony which I
had had to read hurriedly before the Fraser subcommittee, reserving the rest
of my materials in a memorandum of 24 pages which I appended to my
prepared statement. My opening statement read:
I have come to call the attention of the United States Congress to what
appears right now as just another Southeast Asian sore spot. This
seemingly inconsequential trouble spot could, however, develop into the
proportion of a Portugal gone Communist in the context of America’s global
defense system.
Before I go any further, I would like to express my appreciation to the
members of this honorable committee for this rare privilege of being able to
bare certain hitherto unknown facets of this Southeast Asian sore spot. It is
about a dictatorial martial regime that has supplanted by paramount force
the republican government of what once was pridefully known as the show
window of American democracy in Asia.
I fancy myself here right now as speaking in behalf of my 45 million
countrymen now groaning under the yoke of a ruthless dictator. The tyrant
has clamped down a harsh authoritarian rule with the guns of martial law in
a country that has enjoyed for 72 years the blessings of freedom under a
democracy.
Let me trace the origin and pattern of this new tyranny in Asia.
On Sept. 21,1935, as established ‘beyond reasonable doubt” by a
Philippine court, a young man — an expert rifle marksman by his own
account — felled dead with a single rifle shot a reelected congressman. This
happened less than two days after the reelected solon had defeated for the
second time the father of this young man. Of course, the Supreme Court
later acquitted this young man on a “technicality.”
Thirty seven years to the day after that celebrated murder of a
congressman, or on Sept. 21,1972, this same man, nearing the end of his
second and last term as President of his country, having wisened to the
ways of Dictators Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Peron, and anarchist Mikhail
Bakunin, with evident premeditation and long, methodical preparation,
wielded a more powerful weapon — this time the entire armed forces of his
country — and snuffed out, not just the life of one man, but the light of
freedom from an entire nation by placing the Philippines under martial
law. The martial regime, now turned corrupt, ruthless and tyrannical, is
showing all the signs that have inexorably driven free nations to the
Communist tentacles.
The man who was condemned to life imprisonment by a trial court for the
murder of his father’s political conqueror on Sept. 21, 1935, and the man
who must face a terrible verdict of history for killing democracy in the
Philippines on Sept. 21,1972, are one and the same man: Ferdinand E.
Marcos.
How Mr. Marcos methodically plotted to kill democracy in the Philippines
just because he did not want to be an ex-President at an early age (55), how
he wielded the terrible guns of martial law to instill and maintain a pervasive
climate of fear and repression, and how he continues to entrench himself in
the presidential palace in a bid to reign for life and establish an imperial
Primitivo Mijares Page 32
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
dynasty in the Philippines shall be the thrust of my testimony today.
I was an unwitting tool in some of the plans of Mr. Marcos for the
imposition of martial law. As a matter of fact, I was the first newspaperman
to write the full story of the imposition of martial law 12 hours before its
official announcement. I have access in advance to the original copies of
the martial law proclamation and the first six General Orders issued by
President Marcos.
I subsequently became a willing tool in the execution of measures
designed to stabilize the martial regime. I became a close confidant of
President Marcos, at times performing the role of a Joseph Goebbels and
wielding greater powers in the propaganda field than his own official
Information Secretary. And I performed my duties faithfully until it dawned
on me that what I was helping to get entrenched was not a regime of
constitutional authoritarianism dedicated to the establishment of law and
order, and of a New Society. I began to realize that it was nothing but an
infamous design dedicated shamelessly to the establishment by the law of
the gun of an imperial dynasty in the Philippines.
If I now take a strong position against the martial regime of Mr. Marcos,
I do so with the sense of outrage of one who has been so thoroughly
betrayed. I was hoodwinked into supporting the imposition of martial law. It
should not take any longer for the armed forces generals and other
influential civil officials still supporting Mr. Marcos to realize that they, too,
are being hoodwinked. The truth will soon come out, and history will
vindicate me, that the reasons used by President Marcos in imposing martial
law were deliberately manufactured by Mr. Marcos himself in a manner
that makes Hitler a piker in his burning of the Reichstag.
Initially, the Filipino people dutifully supported Mr. Marcos. We had no
other choice. With a series of deliberately contrived crises that created a
fearsome atmosphere of anarchy, Mr. Marcos made the people lapse into a
state of paralysis; he made the terror-stricken populace lose respect for
duly-constituted authorities and confidence in the ability of democratic
processes to maintain law and order. Then he wove a labored tale of
national horror which he eventually enshrined as gospel truth in the martial
law proclamation (No. 1081).
We all went along with Mr. Marcos. We convinced ourselves that in a
developing country, like the Philippines, with limited resources and great
demands by the population on such resources, a firm authoritarian regime
would be best equipped to bring about and maintain a program of
development with the allocation of resources on the basis of priorities.
While I went along with a martial regime, I never shook off my training of
22 years as a cynical newspaperman. As I walked the corridors of the
constricted center of power in Malacanang, I utilized my cynically observant
qualities. I began to discover after the first year of martial rule that the so-
called program of building a New Society was nothing but an ill-disguised
plan of Mr. Marcos to perpetuate himself, his wife and/or son, Ferdinand Jr.,
in power, by consolidating the political, military and economic resources
of the country under his firm control. What is now being forced down the
throats of Filipinos by the guns of martial law is a long-studied, methodically
prepared Oriental Design to take over an entire country politically, militarily
Primitivo Mijares Page 3<?
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
and economically for Mr. Marcos, his family and cronies, preparatory to
setting up an empire in Southeast Asia. Originally, the empire was
programmed to include a portion of the former British Crown Colony of North
Borneo, now known as Sabah under the Federation of Malaysia.
And to achieve his ends, President Marcos plotted to place his country
under martial law as early as 1966, having decided then that he would win
a reelection in 1 969 “at all cost.” Upon his imposition of martial law, he jailed
all his political enemies and media critics, along with youth activists whose
only crime was to ask the custodians of power to give them a better
government, the professionals who dared support the militant youth,
business tycoons who resisted attempts to gobble them up, on fabricated
charges ranging from alleged subversion, economic opportunism to plotting
the President’s assassination.
Let me go into some specific areas of the martial rule:
1) Upon his assumption of the presidency on Dec. 30,1 965, Mr. Marcos
positioned himself for a long rule beyond the constitutionally allowable two-
term tenure which should have ended on Dec. 30, 1973. His master plan
called for winning reelection in 1969 “at all cost,” declaration of martial law
“at least one year” before the expiration of his second and last term on Dec.
30,1973, packing the Supreme Court and the defense establishment with
his hand-picked followers, capture of the local governments, and contriving
crises after crises to justify a Marcos-led military putsch.
2) Having imposed martial law, Mr. Marcos ordered the arrest and
detention without charges of his political opponents, business rivals, militant
student and labor leaders, and media men; closed down the newspapers,
radio and television stations; confiscated properties of political opponents
and business rivals, proceeded to reallocate the entire resources of the
country to just a few favored families, and sought to clothe his regime with
a semblance of legality by extorting a new Constitution from a Convention
then in session.
3) The martial regime is an authoritarian government gone absolutely
corrupt.
4) The corruption of the martial regime is not confined to the insatiable
acquisition of the country’s material resources, but extends to the exercise
of power itself. Having proclaimed martial law, he proceeded to bribe,
coerce and/or intimidate the Constitutional Convention members into
drafting a new charter dictated by him. For lack of time, or as an after-
thought, he then ordered the falsification of the journal of the Convention to
insert “explanatory notes” by delegates for the hastily-prepared provisions
considered vital to his constitutional dictatorship.
5) Realizing after testing the waters that the new Constitution would not
be ratified in a regular plebiscite, Mr. Marcos cancelled the scheduled
plebiscite and went the regular ways of dictators by submitting the charter
to a so-called referendum.
6) The New Constitution, on which Mr. Marcos relies for the
constitutionality of his regime and the legality of all its acts under martial law,
was not validly ratified by the Filipino people. There was no referendum at
all; the results cited by Mr. Marcos in declaring the ratification of the New
Constitution were manufactured by a group that included your humble
Primitivo Mijares Page 40
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
witness.
7) As the media confidant of Mr. Marcos, I orchestrated the reporting of
stories on the referendum and other undertakings of the regime that were
designed to stabilize the new government.
8) A dictatorial regime as it is, the martial government of Mr. Marcos has
become all the more oppressive and corrupt in view of the meddling of his
wife who has turned the martial regime into a conjugal dictatorship.
9) Aside from plundering an entire nation, the conjugal dictatorship is
likewise misappropriating the various items of United States assistance
(military, economic, cultural, etc.) to the Philippines to entrench itself in
power and for personal glorification.
Towards the end of my testimony, I will request the honorable chairman
of the committee to allow me to submit a lengthy memorandum, complete
with exhibits, containing detailed elucidations on the points I have raised in
this opening statement.
The committee will most probably be besieged by coached witnesses
refuting my allegations and assailing my credibility. If anyone of them can
make an honest claim that he has entered the presidential study room inside
Malacanang without going through security and the appointments office,
then he can speak with some competence. There are only six persons who
may succeed in calling me a liar by coming before this committee and
testifying personally under oath. They are President Marcos, the First Lady,
Gov. Romualdez, Secretary of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile, Presidential
Executive Assistant Jacobo C. Clave and Presidential Assistant Guillermo
C. de Vega.
Suffice it to say, at this point, that the faces of martial law I have pictured
to the committee bring to mind a sharp repartee made by the leader of our
independence movement, Don Manuel Luis Quezon, to a spokesman of the
proposition to make the Philippines a state of the United States: “Better a
government run like hell by Filipinos than a government run like Heaven by
Americans.” The United States could not, even if it wanted to, have given us
a government like Heaven but certainly a Filipino is now giving the Filipinos
a government like hell.
In the light of the foregoing, I respectfully suggest that, in aid of
legislation, the committee take into account the following points:
1) Mr. Marcos is not a “dejure” President of the Philippines. He is a
usurper, at best a “de facto” ruler, who holds power in a classic
demonstration of a motto of China’s Mao Tse-Tung (whom Mr. Marcos had
just visited) that “power flows from the barrel of a gun.”
2) The lack of a designated successor, or a provision in the New
Constitution for orderly succession, in case of Mr. Marcos’ demise or
removal from office, for whatever cause, gives investors in the Philippines,
especially foreigners, no guarantee of stability.
3) The Marcos regime, having gone corrupt and betrayed the rising
expectations of a weary people, may soon become easy prey to a real
Communist conspiracy, which is allowed to flourish underground, while
legitimate dissenting groups are mercilessly repressed.
4) The U.S. government cannot just fold its arms on the Philippines with
which it has had a long tradition of friendship and history of tutelage in
Primitivo Mijares Page 41
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
democracy. In the light of the traditional American policy of fighting its
defensive wars outside the American continent, the Philippines becomes
America’s special concern because it is a vital link in the U.S. world-wide
defense network designed to keep wars away from American shores.
5) A Philippines gone Communist could present the U.S. with a problem
on its defense arrangements similar to what is now the so-called Portugal
Trojan horse.
6) Freedom-loving Filipinos desirous of overthrowing the dictatorial yoke
of Mr. Marcos are stymied by the posture of support the state department
has shown for the martial regime; various organized groups waiting for a
clarion call to shed blood for the restoration of democracy in the Philippines
are even more fearful that they might face American troops and arms from
Clark Field, if they should take up arms to overthrow the Marcos regime.
We are not even asking the United States to come to the aid of the
freedom-yearning Filipinos and actively assist them in overthrowing a
dictatorial regime. We want to restore democracy to our ravished country by
our own resources, animated only by our unquenchable thirst for freedom.
We only ask that the United States stand aside, state categorically that it
does not, and will not, support a dictatorial regime that has by now all the
hallmarks of an incipient Vietnam gone Communist.
The opening statement I read before the committee was, of course, only a
capsule of the story of the terrible dark night of dictatorship that has devoured
the Republic of the Philippines. It was this story, so damaging to his claim of
legitimacy as chief of state of the Republic of the Philippines, that President
Marcos tried to prevent me from telling the American Congress and people.
However, the bizarre bribery attempt made by President Marcos to silence
me did not end with the first offer he made to me in Washington, D.C. on June
16, 1975. The bribe offer followed me all the way back to San Francisco,
thereby establishing a second stage, or perhaps, a second criminal act, in the
attempt of Dictator-President Marcos to stop me from talking about his martial
regime.
The first attempt involved an offer made to me by Marcos of a bribe
amounting to $100,000.00 as quid pro quo in the following manner:
1) $50,000.00, if I would withhold my scheduled testimony, or in the
alternative, to tone down my said testimony, on the events leading up to the
imposition, and during the first three years, of martial law in the Philippines,
before the Sub-committee on International Organizations; and 2) Another
$50,000.00, if I, upon compliance with the first condition, would leave the
United States and reside in another country. Australia was suggested because
I have a sister who resides in Perth, W. Australia
I rejected the offer and testified as scheduled at 2 p.m. on June 17, 1975,
before the Subcommittee on International Organizations, denouncing the one-
man military dictatorship of Marcos in the strongest and most authoritative
language yet used against Marcos in a forum where it really counted so much.
I confided the bribe offer at about 8:30 a.m. on June 17,1975, to San
Francisco lawyer Gerald N. Hill; to John Salzberg, staff consultant of the
Subcommittee on International Organizations at about 11 a.m. on June 18,
1975; to Les Whitten, an associate of columnist Jack Anderson, at about 5 p.m.
Primitivo Mijares Page 4Z
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
on June 18,1975; and to Abelardo “Al” Valencia in Washington, D.C. at about
midnight of June 1 6, 1 975.
The second stage, or perhaps the second criminal act involved in this
bizarre case, developed when columnists Anderson and Whitten, the
meticulous and exhaustive investigative reporters that they are, started looking
into the bribe offer themselves on June 26, 1975. The columnists’
investigations, which included telephone calls to the Philippine Consulate
General in San Francisco must have somehow alerted Ambassador Alconcel
to a forthcoming column of Anderson. Evidently in panic, Alconcel obtained
clearance from President Marcos to offer me the lump sum of $100,000 on the
following conditions: 1) That I would immediately leave for Australia; 2) That I
would desist from publishing my book on martial law; and 3) That I would
repudiate the testimony I have given before the House committee, disown the
Jack Anderson columns and all other press statements or public
pronouncements I may have made after my defection on Feb. 20, 1975.
An affidavit embodying the conditions sought to be imposed on me in
exchange for the $100,000.00 was drafted and prepared by Ambassador
Alconcel, presumably at the Philippine Consulate General on Sutter Street in
San Francisco, on a consulate typewriter, and delivered to me on June
26,1975, by an employe of the Consulate, Crispin Padagas.
Pieced together, the activities into which Alconcel dedicated himself upon
direct instructions from President Marcos constituted a brazen attempt by a
tinhorn Asian dictator to tamper with sacred and hallowed American institutions,
i.e. seeking to prevent or pervert the testimony of a congressional witness.
This incident came at a time when the policy-making branch of the United
States government had decided to initiate an inquiry into the wisdom of the U.S.
govenment’s continuing pouring of millions of U.S. taxpayer money in the form
of foreign aid to unstable dictatorial regimes in Southeast Asia. This was
necessitated by the debacle in South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos which
required the sacrifices of 56,000 Americans killed and 500,000 others
wounded, not to mention the $200 billion in money and war materiel poured
into that lengthy war.
President Marcos realized perhaps belatedly that the Fraser committee
hearing would learn for the first time the gory details of his dastardly act of
betrayal of democracy in the Philippines when he placed my country under
martial law on September 21,1972. He tried bribery to stop me. Lately, he has
come out with a denial of the bribery attempts.
Res ipsa loquitor. This is a Latin principle of law which states that the “thing
speaks for itself.” A check for $50,000.00, drawn by the Philippine National
Bank Agency in San Francisco in favor of Alconcel, on June 17,1975, and
deposited jointly in a savings account in Alconcel’s name and mine with the
Lloyds Bank California main branch in San Francisco, also on the same day,
which was the day I was to testify on the Philippine Watergate. The day after I
testified, or on June 18, Alconcel returned to the bank and cancelled my name
from the joint account. These undeniable events constitute the “res” or the
“thing.” I call it the “smoking gun.” Just how the “smoking gun” was discovered
is a matter that one may say was a providential happening. I reported it to the
Fraser committee in this manner in Articles 12, 13, 14, and 21, of my July 10
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
affidavit:
12. That, upon my return to San Francisco, I immediately inquired about
the “bribe money” from my sources, particularly, with the Philippine National
Bank which would be the logical instrument for such a transaction from the
Philippines. Luckily, I discovered that during the first banking hour of June
17,1975, on the day I was to testify, the Philippine National Bank had fever-
ish activity relating to the rush issuance of a Fifty Thousand Dollar
($50,000.00) check in favor of Ambassasor T rinidad Q. Alconcel, the Consul
General of the Philippines in San Francisco. My sources, however, could
not tell me what Ambassador Alconcel did with the check. However, I was
also informed that all transactions with the Philippine National Bank are
being facilitated by three correspondent banks in San Francisco, namely,
Wells Fargo Bank, First Western Bank and Lloyds Bank of California.
13. That, on the basis of the information I had gathered, I started
checking by telephone with the Wells Fargo Bank, and then with the First
Western Bank if any transaction of $50,000.00 involving myself was
recorded by them. I was given by both banks a negative answer.
14. That, when I checked with the Lloyds Bank of California, the person
who answered my telephone inquiry was a certain Mr. Roger Pahl, who,
luckily for me, was the very same person who handled the transaction of
Ambassador Alconcel. Mr. Pahl informed me that at an early banking hour
on June 1 7, 1 975, a person who identified himself as Ambassador T rinidad
Q. Alconcel opened a savings account jointly in his name and my name for
the sum of FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS ($50,000.00). The number of the
Savings Account was 0660-46062. The corresponding deposit slip was
made in both our names for the full amount. When asked where I was so
that I could sign the signature card of the bank, Ambassador Alconcel
reportedly told Mr. Pahl that I was out of the country.
Mr. Pahl then informed me that the following day, June 18, 1975, the
same person, Ambassador Alconcel, went to the bank again, and changed
the name of our joint account to his own name alone. The account number
of the Savings Deposit was changed to No. 0662-46063.
21 . That, at about 3:00 P.M. on July 1 , after preliminary contact with the
Lloyds Bank of California, I was accompanied by my lawyer, Attorney Gerald
N. Hill, and Alex A. Esclamado, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the
Philippine News, to the Lloyds Bank of California office at 201 Montgomery
Street, San Francisco, in order to personally inquire about the
circumstances surrounding Alconcel’s $50,000.00 transaction. Then and
there, we were able to discuss the matter with the bank’s Operations Officer,
Mr. Jerry R. Stanton, from whom we got the following information:
(a) That early in the morning of June 17, 1975, Ambassador
Trinidad Q. Alconcel brought a Philippine National Bank, San Francisco
Agency Check No. 4905 dated June 17, 1975, for the sum of FIFTY
THOUSAND DOLLARS ($50,000.00) payable to “Ambassador Trinidad Q.
Alconcel”. A xerox copy of its face is attached hereto as Annex “E”. The
check was deposited to a Savings Account which was opened in the name
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
of Trinidad Q. Alconcel and Primitivo Mijares. The number of the Savings
Account was 0662-46062. A xerox copy of the original deposit slip, bank
form No. S-150 (09-74) is attached hereto and marked as Annex “F”.
(b) That, the Philippine National Bank check was endorsed on the back
as follows: “PAY TO THE LLOYDS BANK CALIFORNIA FOR DEPOSIT TO
SAVINGS ACCOUNT NO. 0660-46063 IN THE NAME OF PRIMITIVO
MIJARES” (SIGNED) TRINIDAD Q. ALCONCEL. A xerox copy of the signed
endorsement is attached hereto and marked as Annex “G”.
(c) That, the following day, June 18,1975, Ambassador Alconcel went
to the same bank and at that time the account name was changed to the
sole name of “ALCONCEL, TRINIDAD Q. A Universal Credit slip stamped
“Substitute,” was executed for the sum of $50,000.00. A xerox copy of the
form is hereto attached as Annex “H”.
d) That, Mr. Stanton could not find in the records any other signature
card with the joint account name of “Trinidad Q. Alconcel and Primitivo
Mijares”. Mr. Stanton indicated that if there was any signature card bearing
the joint name aforementioned, that he has no knowledge as to what
happened to it. Mr. Stanton further stated that the reason for the two account
numbers was a mistake of the clerk who handled the transaction.
e) That, the amount of FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS ($50,000.00) is
still in deposit with the Lloyds Bank of California, 201 Montgomery Street,
San Francisco, in the personal name of Trinidad Q. Alconcel. However, Mr.
Stanton informed me that I have no right to stop any transactions on the
account because my signature does not appear on the corresponding
signature card and that, based on the nature of the endorsement on the
back of the check, the amount can be withdrawn by Ambassador Alcon-
cel at any time.
The attempt of President Marcos, through his most trusted presidential
assistant and his consul general in San Francisco, to bribe me out of the
congressional committee witness stand and then out of the United States of
America was more than just a case of obstruction of the American system of
justice by a foreign chief of state beyond the territory of his dictatorship.
It is in truth and in fact a dastardly attempt by a tinhorn Asian dictator to
extend the dirty and ugly hands of Marcos’ dictatorial martial regime into the
heartland of freedom-loving America. Obviously, Marcos, heady over the
relative ease by which he had seized power in Manila, wanted to test a new
political theory, the nomenclature by which he describes all steps he
undertakes against the grain of democracy. He wanted to test a new political
theory that he could tamper with sacred and hallowed American institutions
from the seat of his military regime in Manila by obstructing the proceedings of
an investigation by a proper committee of the United States Congress. In
Malacanang, he rules with an iron-hand, secured in the thought that he had
already successfully tampered anyway with an institution of democracy which
the United States had painstakingly set up for almost half a century in Asia by
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
his imposition of martial law in the Philippines in 1972. The other apparent
objective of Marcos in offering me a handsome bribe was to silence the
opposition set up by overseas Filipinos to the despotic military rule that has
engulfed the Philippines. Marcos’ objectives are quite understandable
considering the stakes involved, his crime in trying to buy me out of the House
committee hearing not having been his first anyway against democracy.
The most merciful thing that might be said about the bribe attempt is that
Marcos simply wanted to stop me from giving the damaging testimony that I
gave to the Fraser committee. Marcos has never failed before; he figured
neither the risk that I just might reject his bribe nor the dire consequences that
would ensue from his failure to make me shy away from the committee hearing.
After all, Marcos and other past Philippine Presidents have always had their
way with Mother America; U.S. aid in terms of millions of dollars squeezed out
of the hard-working American taxpayers regularly come almost as a matter of
course.
Thus, when Marcos proclaimed martial law in the Philippines, he took it for
granted that his military dictatorship, nicknamed the New Society, could
undertake, as had his pre-martial law administration as well as others before
him, activities that earn Washington’s condemnation, if committed by
governments other than that of America’s former ward in Asia.
It seems that Marcos hasn’t realized that the rules of the game have already
been changed. He himself changed the rules by which he should be handled in
the United States when he proclaimed martial law in the Philippines; Marcos
discarded the institution of democratic fair play and humane conduct by which
the delicate art of government should be pursued. His very move was one of
the underlying reasons for the decision of the United States Congress to
conduct an inquiry into the U.S. foreign assistance program, including the dole
out of millions of dollars to the Philippines; the U.S. Congress wanted to deter-
mine the wisdom of pumping millions of American taxpayer money into
authoritarian regimes that go against the very objective of foreign assistance,
which is the expansion of the frontiers of freedom and democracy all over the
world.
It was Marcos’ own conduct of an oppressive and rapacious authoritarian
government that made me renounce a rule of doggish, loyal service to him. He
had the gall nevertheless to assume that I was still his man whom he could
keep away from a congressional witness stand with a bribe offer. Now, other
rules are changing for Marcos. The United States government has decided to
investigate the bribe.
The attempt to silence me, and the later attempt to make me recant my
congressional testimony, were not the first of acts of similar nature committed
by the martial government of Marcos by way of exportation of martial law to the
United States. The exportation of Marcos’ martial law has an altogether
different objective from the exportation made by Fidel Castro of his Cuban
revolution. Marcos’ main desire is to silence criticisms and opposition abroad
by both Filipinos and friends of the Filipino people in order to minimize possible
alarm that might be raised by foreign governments, particularly the United
States, over the repression and plunder that the military regime has launched
in the Philippines.
The Manila government has prepared a “blacklist” of Filipinos residing in
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
the United States who cannot return to the Philippines without being subjected
to reprisals for their anti-martial law activities. Pictures of these “blacklisted”
persons are posted at every point of entry in the Philippines, including Clark Air
Force base, so that they can be seized and detained any time they land in the
Philippines. The list includes American citizens of Filipino descent.
Even the so-called “balikbayan” program, which was launched by the
martial regime to induce Filipinos abroad to visit their homeland, is part of the
over-all program of the regime to conceal the Philippine Watergate; it has not
really boosted the Philippines’ dollar reserves as claimed by Tourism
Secretary Jose D. Aspiras.
Marcos also exports his martial law to the United States through the vehicle
of a well-oiled propaganda apparatus. Wherever possible, Marcos or his
minions summon relatives of “blacklisted” Filipinos to Manila and order them to
write their kins in the United States to stop their activities against, or their
criticisms of, martial law in the Philippines.
The Manila regime has not hesitated to crack down on news organs of
Filipinos which have been critical of the dictatorship. The glaring example is the
pressure applied by President Marcos on the Filipino-owned travel agencies,
which are raking in on the “balikbayan” project, to withdraw their advertising
from the Philippine News and shift them to the propaganda organs operated by
Gov. Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez in the United States.
The shenanigans that President Marcos would still resort to in order to
insure the stability and long duration of his authoritarian regime in the
Philippines are still inconceivable, but, considering his satanic record and
infinite capacity for diabolical cunning, I expect him to go to great lengths. The
stakes are so high and are still escalating for Marcos to leave anything to
the normal behavior of a man. The stakes in his New Society could even involve
his own neck and those of the persons collaborating with him, including the
diamond-studded neck of Imelda whose wrinkles have been stretched a la “Ash
Wednesday.”
Marcos already made a dastardly attempt to shield from the American
government and people the Machiavellian design for his infamous power-grab
in the Philippines when he sought to offer me a bribe to keep me out of a House
committee hearing. His bribe offer appears so reprehensible when one takes
note of the fact that Marcos did it to conceal the gory ways by which he went
about dismantling the apparatus of a democratic government set up by the
United States in Asia; it becomes specially condemnable considering that the
bribe offer constitutes an attempt by a tinhorn Asian dictator to tamper with
sacred and hallowed American institutions; it sounds so alarming when the fact
emerges that it was done on the eve of the celebration by the United States of
America of the bicentennial of the launching of the first great American
experiment in democracy. To my mind, it betrayed Marcos’ utter contempt for
the principles of democracy, which he dismantled in the Philippines, whether
they be established in the Philippines, in the United States of America or
anywhere else.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The attempt to tamper with a congressional hearing in the U.S. was Marcos’
contemptuous way of saying, “Happy Birthday, America!” It was his assalto * 5
to Mother America.
(*5. This is a Spanish word adopted into the Filipino language to mean a party given as a
surprise to a person on the eve of his birthday.)
In my own case, Marcos has not spared any lie to hit back at me because
I told the truth about his authoritarian regime before the U.S. Congress. Only
Lucifer * 6 knows what other schemes Marcos would come up with next to
denigrate my efforts at contributing to the cause of restoration of democracy in
the Philippines.
(*6. It was a matter of common knowledge in Manila before September 21 ,
1972, that Congressman Carmelo Z. Barbero used to swear upon a stack of
Bibles (Douay version) that Marcos operates by the “book of Satan.’’)
However, Marcos cannot stop my irreversible course. I made an
appointment with history when I defected from Marcos’ regime, and I kept my
date with an important chapter of Philippine history when I testified before the
Fraser committee. I will continue to honor my commitment to history, and
specifically to the journalistic profession in that, having fortunately or
unfortunately walked the corridors of power during a dark hour in the life of my
country and having been privy to the sinister manipulations of a scheming man
and his more ambitious wife, I would perpetuate my knowledge and
observations on this abominable chapter in the history of my country.
Chapter III
Twilight of Democracy
Dusk was settling on the ancient city of Manila, with the sun that gives the
Oriental metropolis its most beautiful sunset slowly sliding away behind the
clouds beyond historic Corregidor and Caballo islands. The eastern horizon
was aflame with layers of red clouds, a phenomenon which a Batangas farmer
would undoubtedly interpret as a portent of heavy rains, perhaps stormy days,
ahead.
Out in Project 6, Quezon City, where I resided, my immediate neighbors,
Lolo and Lola Adama, parents of former advertising salesgirl Fanny Adama who
now resides in New York City, beckoned to my youngest son, Luis Manuel, who
was driving around on his mini-motorcycle. In mixed llocano and Tagalog,
the two old folks advised my Boyet to go home because they feared that
something terrible was in the offing. Their gauge, or the basis for their
superstitious belief, was the prolonged mournful howling of dogs and the
cackling of chickens in the neighborhood. The phenomenon observed by the
elder Adarnas manifested itself almost throughout the country that after-
noon.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The setting sun over Manila Bay gave a snugness to President Marcos’
private Study Room at Malacanang that early evening of September 22,1972.
Marcos sat serene in his study, glancing once in a while at the bevy of red
telephone receiver sets which linked his office with military camps all over the
country.
What am I about to do? Marcos must have asked himself. Then, he
imagined that in whatever direction he would be looking there would be soldiers
sealing and closing down newspaper offices, and radio and television stations;
soldiers knocking at and/or down locked doors and inviting or dragging out
forcibly persons previously listed in an “order of battle” to go with them in a van;
camps filled with men and women who have made the mistake of disagreeing
with him or acting rather headily in seeking to consign Marcos prematurely to
the dung heap of a lameduck presidency. How pitiful they would soon be,
he must have mused.
Marcos pressed a button in his intercom, and when an ever ready aide
responded to say “yes, sir,” he commanded: “Get me Secretary Enrile.” And
then, with his line to the communications room aide still open, Marcos muttered
to himself: “Masyadong mabagal ang mga taong ‘yan kung kailan pa naman
kaitangan magmadali." (Those people [without alluding to anyone in particular]
move so sluggishly at a time when I want them to move fast enough.) Within a
few minutes, he determined that his secretary of national defense, Juan Ponce
Enrile, had left his office at Camp Emilio Aguinaldo * 1 rather early in the day.
(*1.The main building at Camp Aguinaldo houses the office of the secretary of national defense
and serves also as the armed forces general headquarters. Originally named Camp Murphy in
honor of Frank Murphy, last American governor-general in the Philippines, the camp was renamed
in 1962 in honor of the President of the first Republic.)
He was located by Sgt. Arturo Boquiren, agent on duty at the
communications room near the President’s Study Room, in the house of a
“friend.” Somewhat irritated, Marcos ordered Enrile in the following manner
“Secretary Enrile? Where are you? You have to do it now . . . ya, ya, the one
we discussed this noon. We cannot postpone it any longer. Another day of
delay may be too late.” Continuing his orders obviously after being interrupted
with some remarks by Enrile, Marcos went on: “Make it look good. Kailangan
seguro ay may masaktan o kung mayroon mapatay ay mas-mabuti. (May be it
would be better if somebody got hurt or killed.) . . . O, hala, sigue, Johnnv (Okav.
eo ahead) and be sure the storv catches the ‘Big News’ and ‘Newswatch’. . .
and call me as soon as it is over.”
My newsman’s instinct told me that I would be handling the biggest news
story of my life. I gained some inkling on the unfolding drama days earlier from
the President himself. He instructed me during one of our luncheon sessions to
prepare a “situationer” (a news round-up) on the encounters between elements
of the government’s armed forces and the Communist New People’s Army, the
“landing” of combat weapons and war materiel for the NPAs along the coast of
Digoyo in Palanan, Isabela, the “terror bombings” in Manila and suburbs, and
the violent demonstrations of the radicals.
“Make sure that the Daily Express puts out the situationer on or before
Sunday (September 24, 1972),” Marcos said to me. “Tell them it is a direct
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
instruction from me.”
As Marcos completed his phone conversation with Enrile, I could not stop
the jitters over my body. I pondered the seemingly inextricable depth of
cooperation I was extending Marcos on his irreversible course of action.
At this stage, I felt some sense of guilt largely because weeks earlier I had
a lively discussion with my first three children, Perla and Pilita, who were then
high school students at St. Theresa’s; and Jose Antonio, also a high school
student at Lourdes School, all in Quezon City.
All three of them and my youngest, Boyet, have mockingly called me a
Marcos “tuta” (lap dog). They sang the tune that Marcos was an incompetent
President who has not responded to the needs of the country for reforms. They
said they were learning early in school and from schoolmates that “the estab-
lishment” which Marcos represents can no longer stem the tide of change and
reform as demanded by intellectuals, professionals, businessmen, students,
peasants and laborers. Even the seminarians, priests and nuns had joined the
forces for change and progress, they said.
For the police and education reporters, it looked like there would be no
sensational stories which they would be able to utilize to shove off from above
the newspaper fold those salsal stories usually pounded out of the typewriters
by the byline-hugging reporters from the Malacanang or the Palace beats. It
has been a pleasant development since the advent of the decade of the
seventies that the education reporters, deprecatingly looked down upon as the
“dead beat” newshounds, have come up on their own as they teamed up with
the glamorous police reporters to write about student activism and other
demonstrations in the Manila metropolis. But this night of September 22,
1 972, there was no scheduled demonstration; there was nary a hint in the police
blotter that any group or groups were forming at the university belt to march
along P. Burgos, the traditional route of demonstrators, or Mendiola, which
leads to the gates of Malacanang Palace.
Teodorico “Teddy Laway” Santos, a former driver for police reporters
turned police reporter himself for the newspaper with the widest circulation
Manila Times, summed up the activist front for all the police reporters who
usually converge 4 p.m. at the Manila Metropolitan Police headquarters on U.N.
Avenue with a call to Crispulo Icban, Jr., the Times city editor, thus: “Jun,
tahimik ang bayan. (The town is quiet). Don’t expect any earth-shaking story
from our end.” As a matter of fact, Teddy. Laway and most members of the
newmen’s tribe would not be turning in any stories for a long, long time to come.
Brig. Gen. Gerardo Tamayo, MMP chief, soon joined the police reporters,
shaking his head and muttering: “I don’t like it, boys. It’s too quiet for comfort.”
Gerry’s sixth sense as a policeman was loudly telling him this could be the
proverbial lull before a big storm.
Not being up to the minute on the news, jittery housewives huddled in the
thousands of homes with their young ones in Manila and environs, wondering
when the family bread-winner would come home. So fresh still in their mind was
the incident involving a father who, while buying a gift for a three-year-old
daughter celebrating her birthday, was blown to pieces by a bomb exploded by
an alleged Communist terrorist on busy Carriedo Street in Sta. Cruz, near the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Quiapo church. Families waited, too, for their student-daughters or sons who
might get caught in whirlpools of troubles that demonstrations, whether staged
by students or workers, usually generate.
In the editorial offices of the Daily Express, the newspaper established by
Marcos through a silent front man, Ambassador to Japan Roberto S. Benedicto,
Managing Editor Neal H. Cruz teased staff writers Marita Manuel and Jorge
Arago about their kabusisi-an * 2 (*2. A vulgar term for meticulousness.)
as they demanded to review once more a special article they have jointly written
two days earlier on an interview with Senator Beriigno S. Aquino, Jr., the No. 1
tormentor of our then invisible publisher. Marita shouted that, if the staff
members only had a bigger editorial office, then she and Jorge wouldn’t be
bothering people with their looking for type-set stories. This prompted ever alert
Enrique “Pocholo” Romualdez, the editor-in-chief, to butt in: “Don’t worry,
Marita, we will assign you the biggest cubicle when that guy Yabut
finally yields this entire compound to the Daily Express”. Makati Mayor Nemesio
I. Yabut, an early supporter of Marcos who is now all washed up with the
President ever since the killing of Delfin Cueto * 3 at the lobby of the
Intercontinental Hotel, had given Marcos his word during the inauguration of
the Daily Express printing plant on May 7, 1972, that he would cede a
vacant lot titled under his name to the President for the expansion requirements
of the newpaper facility.
(*3. Cueto, said to be a half-brother of President Marcos, was a labor leader from Agusan,
who allegedly tried to set up some protection rackets in the affluent suburb of Makati, Rizal.
Onedayin May, 1972, Yabutintoned that “Makati elected only one king, and that’s the new mayor.”
A few days later, Cueto was gunned down by Makati policemen “in self-defense.”)
As Marita found the type-set copy of her article, she shouted to Jorge,
saying: “Halika, tignan mo ito. (Come, look at this.) Ninoy [Aquino] said, ‘If
Marcos declares martial law, he better get me within the first few hours or he
won’t get me at all’. Ano kaya, tumakbo kaya si Ninoy sa Sierra Madre ? (What
do you think, will Ninoy flee to Sierra Madre?).” “Ay hindi, sa U.S.
embassy siya tutungo, CIA ‘ata ‘yan. (Oh, no, he would run to the U.S.
embassy. What’s he a CIA agent for?),” Arago replied.
The old residence of the late Mayor Arsenio H. Lacson on M. Eamshaw in
Sampaloc, from where venom had spouted from the mouth of the irrepressible
mayor who in his lifetime had fought unceasingly against government abuses,
official graft and corruption, and any slight evidence of a creeping dictator-
ship from Malacanang, appeared quiet, deserted from the outside view. Inside,
however, Antonio Garcia was seething with rage over another piece of
evidence of the continuing corruption within the administration of President
Marcos. He was looking at the time at a handwritten note of Marcos directing
Garcia’s friend and boss at the time, Rice and Com General Manager
Benny Villamor, to issue a permit for the landing in La Union of several
shiploads of rice imported from abroad by Congressmen Jose D. Aspiras and
Eduardo Cojuangco and Defense Secretary Enrile. Earlier, then Supreme
Court Justice Julio Villamor, father of the RCA chief, warned his son that he
could be sent to jail if he implemented the Marcos directive on the rice
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
shipments which were illegal since only the RCA was authorized to import
cereals. Garcia recalls that the directive was in Marcos’s own handwriting which
he (Garcia) at that time thought should have been leaked to the press.
Garcia mentally wrote the story for Jose L. Guevara, columnist of the
Manila Times, and Willie Ng, of the Manila Daily Bulletin, his favorite contacts
among the metropolitan newsmen. Garcia thought he would have to add as
“backgrounder” some of the notorious activities that the relatives of President
Marcos, his mother Dona Josefa Edralin Marcos and his youngest sister, Ms.
Fortuna “Baby" Marcos-Barba, in the operations of the rice agency. Garcia
recalled that in the more recent weeks, mother and daughter Marcos engaged
in virtual “black-marketing” of rice while there was a severe shortage of supply
of the cereal throughout the country. Dona Josefa had been making demands
on Villamor that certain parties be given RCA retailer’s license “because they
are supporters of the Dona Josefa Marcos Foundation.” Fortuna was also
badgering Villamor for similar concessions. At one time, Villamor refused to
receive Fortuna as she kept circling the block on G. Tuason, Quezon City,
where the Villamor residence was located. An angry Fortuna was heard by
Villamor’s guard shouting, “The President will hear about this!” * 4
(*4. Villamor was the first state official to be fired by the martial regime.)
Garcia had only recently quit as assistant administrator for public affairs of
the Social Security System in disgust over the misuse by Marcos of the facilities
of the system. Garcia had denounced the use for one year in 1968 and 1969
by Marcos (in his reelection campaign) of 50 brand new Toyota jeeps of the
SSS, which the institution purchased from a corporation controlled by a Marcos
front man, the Delta company, and of the printing press of the system. The SSS
press was operated at night by personnel of the National Media Production
Center for printing black propaganda materials against Marcos’ rival for the
presidency, Senator Sergio Osmena, Jr.
In the case of young Villamor, he decided to dety Marcos in the unloading
of the illegal rice for which the RCA head paid dearly when martial law was
declared. When the first issue under martial law of the Marcos-owned
newspaper, Daily Express, hit the streets, Villamor was presented as the first
important government official to be dismissed for “corruption”. This diabolical
smearing of a young Harvard-trained technocrat, scion of a respected justice,
was also in retaliation for the humiliation suffered by Marcos’s mother, Josefa,
and Marcos’s sister, Fortuna Barba, over the repeated denials by Villamor of
their demands for bigger rice allocations for their clients.
Amidst a setting of anarchy, public confusion, terror and despair, the two
great expressions of the Filipino people’s continuing desire to preserve
democracy in the island Republic were functioning, if groggily.
The latest, the Constitutional Convention called in 1970 to draft sweeping
and fundamental structural changes in the government and society, was still
reeling from the unexpected defeat on the floor of a so-called “ban Marcos”
resolution and the surprising victory of the faction favoring the shift of the struc-
ture of government from the existing presidential to the parliamentary form.* 5
(*5. See Chapter V for more detailed discussion of this point.)
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Earlier, the whole nation was shocked by the revelations of Delegate
Eduardo Quintero, a former ambassador and province mate of the First Lady,
that meetings of Convention delegates had been called in the Malacanang
presidential palace where bribe money was given and taken. Although
Quintero was generally hailed as a hero, he eventually found himself the
accused rather than the complainant following a vicious process of de-
deglamorization applied to him under the baton of no less than President
Marcos. The Convention Committee on Privileges which investigated the
Quintero expose held by a split vote (5-4) that his charge that the bribe money
was given and taken to cause the defeat of the “ban Marcos” resolution and the
adoption of the parliamentary system was baseless and, by inference, that he
was to blame for raising them in the first place.* 6 A criminal charge was filed
against Quintero. With the strange twist on the Quintero case, the charter meet
was in no mood to work overtime. Former President Diosdado P. Macapagal,
the Con-Con president, adjourned the sessions early on that day of September
22,1972.
(*6. 1 was the major propagandist in the apparatus set up by Marcos to deglamorize Quintero.
I had to go to Tacloban City in June and coordinate with Kokoy Romualdez and Secretary De Vega
in gathering “dirt" on Quintero.)
The major center of open, public concern over the unfolding national drama
was Congress, where the delicate balancing of the contending factions of
democracy engage in the art of give and take, with some abuses that were
better tolerated than suppressed altogether. Senate and House leaders had
agreed earlier not to adjourn on September 21 as earlier scheduled, but to
gavel the current special session, the third for 1972, to “sine die” adjournment
on September 23 instead.
In the House, there was nothing much to do. It had already disposed of the
major bills assigned to the extra meet. All it had to do was wait for the Senate
to act on these bills, and for some bicameral conference committees to report
back on their task of reconciling Senate-House differences on certain
administration bills. Speaker Cornelio T. Villareal was busy signing a mountain
of vouchers which he would have to leave behind to take care of the allowances
which House Secretary Inocencio B. Pareja would have to distribute to the
congressmen during Villareal’s absence. Villareal was to leave on September
23 as head of the Philippine delegation to the International Parliamentary Union
annual general assembly in Lima, Peru. The other ranking member of the
delegation, recently-ousted House Minority Leader Justiniano S. Montano, had
left earlier on September 21 for Tokyo enroute to Lima. With Montano on the
same Air France flight to Tokyo in September were newsmen Jesus Bigomia,
of the Manila Daily Bulletin; Amante F. Paredes, of the Manila Chronicle; and
Feliciano H. Magno, of the Daily Mirror who have wangled through
Congressman Roque R. Ablan, Jr. non-revenue airline tickets to join the
delegation to Lima.
In the Senate, there was greater concern for the national welfare. The main
topic was what would happen or what the senators would do, if Marcos declared
martial law. “O, Kuyang Gil (Hey, brother Gil),” Senator Jovito R. Salonga, a
Liberal, sought to attract the attention of Senate President Gil J.Puy at
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
"according to the thesis of Pepe here, you should be President of the
Philippines by December 30,1973, if Marcos should declare martial law now
and suspend the elections in November next year.” "Aw, come now, let’s not
kid ourselves about Marcos, replied Puyat with the ever-present smile on his
face. Both Puyat and Salonga were sincerely convinced that Marcos was not
about to relinquish the presidency at the end of his term on December 30,1 973.
But they did not know just what steps Marcos was planning to take to
perpetuate himself in power. Senator Jose W. Diokno had delivered a few days
earlier a privileged speech warning Marcos that, if he proclaimed martial law in
order to stay in office beyond December 30,1973, he would be violating the
Constitution; Diokno said that the lawful President of the country after high noon
of December 30, 1973, would be whoever is Senate President at the time.
The more proper subject of martial law was being dealt with by the upper
chamber’s "whiz kid,” Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. at the time. Aquino told
worried senators and newsmen that he believed that Marcos has laid out plans,
and has finally decided, to impose martial law. However, Ninoy expressed the
belief that Marcos would not declare martial law until after December, 1972.
Aquino said Marcos would not dare institute a military regime and run the risk
of facing a hungry nation. He pointed out that the devastating July-August
floods would cause the country another rice shortage. In the meantime, Aquino
said, he would continue to expose the “fake landing of arms in Digoyo” and
Marcos-trained terror squads roaming the streets of Manila in the hope that
these infrastructures for the imposition of martial law would be dismantled by
Marcos.
Aquino recalled talks he held a month earlier, about August 1 9, with former
Manila Mayor Antonio J. Villegas who had urged him to flee the country
because martial law was in the offing. The Tarlac senator expressed surprise
that Villegas had more or less the same Marcos martial law plans that he
himself (Aquino) had uncovered. The only difference, Aquino noted, was that
the martial plan which Villegas told the senator about had no code-name, while
the plan that fell into Ninoy’s hands was code-named “Oplan Sagittarius.”
Villegas had developed wide contacts within the intelligence community to
know that the martial plan of Marcos was for real; he left for the United States
on August 20,1972. Aquino was prepared, however, to fight the imposition of
martial law up to the last minute; he said that he was not about to oblige Marcos
with the spectacle of an Aquino fleeing to the hills or to a foreign country on a
threat of declaration of martial law. “But if Marcos declares martial law, he will
have to get me within the first few hours, or he will never get me at all,” Aquino
restated a line he had given two days earlier to interviewers Marita and Jorge.
As Aquino was regaling Senate reporters with anecdotes, another group of
beat reporters, those assigned to the defense department, were cursing the
DND PIO for “inefficiency.” The jeeps that usually took them to their respective
offices in Manila have not arrived; they had no significant story to turn in to
their desks, and yet they were going to be late for their deadlines. They didn’t
realize at the time that the delay in the arrival of the jeeps was intentionally
planned. The newsmen were going to be used by Secretary Enrile.
Just as Aquino was saying his long goodbyes to the Senate reporters,
Puyat having adjourned the Senate session to enable members of the chamber
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
to attend the various bicameral conference committee meetings scheduled for
late that evening, an aide of the Tarlac senator rushed to his side with a
typewritten note. Upon reading the note, Aquino blurted: “Here it is, boys. The
Times reporter has just phoned in a story that Secretary Enrile’s party was
ambushed by unknown gunmen near some bushes along the Wack Wack Golf
and Country Club. The secretary was unhurt, but his white Mercedes Benz car
was riddled with bullets at the back. He was not inside his official car at the
time of the ambush. No member of his party was hurt. And the report states
that a check on slugs recovered from the bullet-riddled car showed that the
ammo matched those recovered from Digoyo in Palanan, Isabela. This is it,
boys. That guy Marcos must be escalating things. Let’s go listen to Jose Mari
Velez’s ‘Big News,’ maybe we can have more details. I’ll look into this, and I will
get in touch with you guys later.”
As Aquino rushed out of the Senate session hall, the journalists almost to
a man, but especially Free Press staff writer Filemon Tutay, started thinking
aloud that the government-announced discovery of a shipment of arms,
purportedly for the New People’s Army, at Digoyo Point in Isabela, and the
series of mysterious bombings that took place in the Greater Manila area may
have all been a product of a suspected Malacanang-managed “Bureau of Plant
Industry” for the month of August and the first three weeks of September, 1 972.
Only in one case was a culprit found: a Constabulary sergeant assigned to the
Firearms and Explosives Section of the Philippine Constabulary confessed
responsibility for the bombing of Joe’s Department store in Carriedo, in Sta.
Cruz, Manila on Sept. 5,1972. Always ever-ready to throw off any suspicion,
Malacanang announced an obvious implementation of the Communist ter-
ror plan have resulted in the “bombing of the Philippine Long Distance
Telephone Company exchange at East Avenue, and of the Philippine Sugar
Institute building at North Avenue, both in Quezon City, on August 1 7; of a water
mains on Aurora Boulevard and Madison Avenue, Quezon City, on August 19,
of the Philamlife building again on August 30; of the armored car and building
of the Philippine Banking Corporation as well as the buildings of the Investment
Development, Inc. and the Daily Star Publications, on August 30; of the City
Hall of Manila, on September 8; of the water mains in San Juan, Rizal, on Sep-
tember 12; of the San Miguel building in Makati, Rizal, on September 14; and
of the Constitutional Convention area at the Quezon City hall on September 1 8.
Malacanang said the terror-bombing program of the Communists included
the attempted bombing of the Congress building on July 18, when an
unexploded bomb was found in the Senate Publications Division and the
attempted bombing of the Department of Foreign Affairs on August 30.
Out in the city streets, blue-painted cars and buses marked with the words
“METROCOM” in dull red letters cruised near the buildings of Manila’s
newspaper, radio and television stations, this time filled with troopers from the
Philippine Constabulary Metropolitan Command. People did not mind them
as the vehicles went about what had become an apparent routine exercise of
passing, parking and then leaving the media buildings and surrounding areas.
Three weeks earlier, when the Metrocom exercises were first noticed, people
were led to believe that the troopers were sent to provide security, especially
for the Daily Express, against vandalism by violent demonstrators. “Ah, the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Metrocom is around to protect us from demonstrators,” was a common
comment among the media men. Only this night, the Metrocom vehicles were
not showing signs of pulling away from their assigned areas for the usual trip
back to Camp Crame.
By this time, President Marcos was back in his Study Room in Malacanang
after a nine-hole round of golf at the Malacanang Park. The “Big News” top
announcer Jose Man Velez and Channel 9’s “Newswatch” at 8 p.m. have
announced the news of Enrile’s ambush. Henry Halasan was preparing to do
his thing on his nightly newscast, “The World Tonight,” over Channel 2. But
Marcos was certain those scheduled news programs would go through as
planned. What he wanted was a direct report. He thought that something might
have gone awry with the nest of emergency telephones right beside him; why
didn’t anyone of them bring in the call he had been waiting for?
The nest of red telephones were Marcos emergency link to the country’s
military installations, including the offices of the defense secretary and the
armed forces general headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo. The communications
network was financed in its entirety with American tax dollars. The equipment
had U.S. markings; they must necessarily be so, because they were bought
with American taxpayer money from American suppliers; they were part of what
was known as continuing U.S. foreign assistance program to the Philippines.
The network was set up for Marcos by the U.S. Agency for International
Aid. The justification was that the Philippine President needed instant
communication facilities for all the various regions to oversee the peace and
order campaign as well as the vital national economic development projects all
going on at the same time. The principal rationale for foreign aid, however, is
that it must be utilized to expand the frontiers of freedom and democracy in the
recipient country.
Soon, one of the phone rings, and Agent Boquiren, audibly excited, shouts
simultaneously into the intercom to announce that Secretary Enrile was on the
line. Picking up the ringing phone, Marcos says automatically into the receiver,
“Hello, Johnny, how did it go?”
Then, in answer to what evidently was a long verbal report, Marcos intones:
“Good, good!. . .Okay, Johnny, implement my proclamation. And just in case
any major problem crops up, don’t hesitate to call me. Be sure you get Aquino,
Diokno and Roces. They must not get away. I will be up all night to monitor
direct reports from other areas. Oh, sigue, Johnny, good luck.” “Good night, sir!”
Enrile replied.
The President turned to the intercom once more and barked an order to
Agent Boquiren: “Get me General Ver!” In no time at all, the President was
talking to Gen. Ver about the ring of steel that must be thrown around the
Palace, and they reviewed the number of escape plans to be followed should
the undertaking just signalled into execution by Marcos go awry and require,
therefore, Marcos’ involuntary flight out of Malacanang or the country with his
family and official retinue. Satisfied that the general’s presidential guard
battalion could cope with any emergency, even that arising from any rebellious
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
military unit, Marcos signalled the country’s entire military establishment into
full operation that night.
With that signal, President Marcos let loose a shocker as he placed the
entire Philippines under martial law. It was sweeping as it was swift and
shockingly fast. But the really shocking fact was that the act didn’t seem to
shock the members of Congress, particularly the opposition Liberal party
leaders, lending credence to the belief that most of them knew about it.
Or, perhaps, the most worrisome possibility of all has become reality, the
possibility that politicians, so engrossed in their politics of survival, including the
employment of private armies, and corrupt money-making ventures, have lost
all control of themselves to resist the imposition of martial law.
In my testimony before the Fraser committee, I capsulized the initial days
of the proclamation of martial law in the following words:
President Marcos announced formally at about 8 p.m. on Sept. 23,
1972, that he had placed the entire Philippines under martial law as of 9
p.m. Sept. 22,1 972, by way of effective implementation of a martial law edict
(Proclamation No. 1081) which he had signed on Sept. 21,1972. Two
months later, he told a convention of historians that he really signed the
proclamation on Sept. 17, 1972.
The deceitful manner by which martial law was imposed in the Philippines
by Marcos was so characteristic of the man who has learned to live by a
gunslinger’s credo of “shoot first, explain later.” Former Executive Secretary
Rafael M. Salas once described the “Marcos style” as the evolution of two
experiences. Salas said these are Marcos’ “experience with domestic politics
in the llocos, where there are two methods: violence or money and his
experience in Congress, where there are really no rules. In short, any type of
dissimulation or chicanery or bribery or coercion is applicable.”
The deceit employed by Marcos in the imposition of martial law was in the
implementation of Proclamation No. 1081 ahead of the official announcement.
Marcos also displayed the same callous contempt for the elementary
requirements of democratic rules on prior publicity of presidential acts affecting
the liberties of the people when he suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas
corpus on August 22,1971, in the wake of the grenade-bombing of a Liberal
party rally at Plaza Miranda towards midnight on August 21, 1971. The
suspension of the writ was announced by Marcos only on August 23 at 4 p.m.,
or almost two days after the implementaton of Proclamation No. 889 from which
Marcos’ secret police derived authority to round up alleged subversives.
By his proclamation of martial law, Marcos became the Dictator-President
of the Philippines. Having consolidated, and made certain of, the support of the
government armed forces, Marcos assumed all powers of the state and placed
all government agencies and instrumentalities under his personal control,
including the Judiciary. He laid down the infallibility of his one-man rule by
declaring in a public document * 7 thus:
(* 7 . General Order No. 1, dated Sept. 22,1972.)
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
“I do hereby (further) order that the Judiciary shall continue to function
in accordance with its present organization and personnel, and shall try and
decide in accordance with existing laws all criminal and civil cases, except
the following (Italics ours):
1. Those involving the validity, legality or constitutionality of
Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21,1972, or of any decree, order
or acts issued, promulgated or performed by me or by my duly designated
representative pursuant thereto.
2. Those involving the validity, legality or constitutionality of any rules,
orders or acts issued, promulgated or performed by public servants
pursuant to decrees, orders, rules and regulations issued and promulgated
by me or by my duly designated representative x x x”
Then, Marcos bought additional insurance on the loyalty of the government
armed forces by increasing by 150 percent the monthly base pay of all
commissioned officers, from Second Lieutenant to General. * 8 The salary
increase was effective October 1, 1972.
(*8. General Order No. 11. Dated Sept. 30, 1 972.)
As a one-man ruler, Marcos suddenly developed amnesia. He forgot that
his battle-cry in the 1965 presidential election campaign was that “This Nation
Can Be Great Again,’’ and that upon his inauguration on Dec. 30, 1965, he
translated his election to the presidency as a “Mandate for Greatness.” All of a
sudden, by the end of September, 1 972, there was a set of brand-new slogans
for a new order, proclaiming that the imposition of martial rule was ordered upon
him by Divine Providence to “save the Republic and build a New Society.” The
New Society, Marcos declared, will come into being with the people having a
new sense of discipline, uprightness, and love of country.
With the onset of the New Society, the Filipino people slowly realized that
public order had been restored and the crime rate has dropped dramatically in
the sheets of government press releases. In addition, the people have had to
contend with the spectacle of a martial rule that paved the way for:
1) Shutdown of, and imposition of government control over, all media and
other means of giving out information;
2) Arrest and detention, in most cases without charges or complaint, of
thousands allegedly involved, wittingly or unwittingly, in a conspiracy to
overthrow the government.
The long list of detainees included prominent oppositionists, outspoken
journalists and publishers, Constitutional Convention delegates who were
against the idea of prolonging the term of Marcos beyond Dec. 30, 1973,
student leaders, professors, intellectuals and union organizers. The common
denominator for the persons rounded up was that they protested at one time
against the gross social and political injustices perpetrated or condoned by
Marcos.
3) Placing of all public utilities under military supervision;
4) Banning of mass action in rallies or demonstrations, of criticisms of public
officials and of the inalienable right of workers to strike and picket.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
5) Closing of all schools for one week.
6) Imposition of curfew from 1 2 o’clock midnight to 4 o’clock in the morning,
reduced later to from 1 o’clock in the morning to 4 o’clock in the morning.
7) Carrying of firearms outside residence without the permission of the
armed forces of the Philippines became punishable by death.
8) Suspension of the departure of Filipinos abroad, except on official
mission.
Why did the Filipino people, the vociferous champions of civil liberties and
freedom of man that they are, submit so meekly to the imposition of martial
law?
A key to this attitude may have an explanation in the memoirs written by
the late American jurist George Malcolm who, on writing about the Philippine
Independence movement, observed: “It is true that Filipinos will tell you in strict
confidence that they do not favor independence, but that, they cannot say
so publicly. Why is this? The principal reason is the desire of the Filipino to say
the thing that pleases, and he assumes that Americans are enemies of
independence . . .” (Italics ours.)
The terrible truth is that, after those series of bombings and violent
demonstrations, few people doubted other stories of escalating Communist
activities, however implausible they may have seemed to leaders like Aquino
and the skeptical newspapermen. Thus, the people accepted with open arms
the imposition of martial law as a substitute for the worsening conditions,
even though they may have been warned that such situations were being
contrived by Marcos and his psychological war agents. The people were sick,
tired and weary in the wake of those unsolved bombings, riots, ambushes, graft
and corruption, inefficiency and official chicanery.
The climate of fear and repression created by Proclamation No. 1 081 drove
the people into a passive attitude towards martial law. The Opposition was
cowed because Marcos clamped its leaders in jail and others who were allowed
to go free were told in clear and unmistakable language that they could just be
arrested and detained by the military.
The timing of the imposition of martial law was heavily dependent on
Congress being in session and Senator Aquino being available for the planned
arrest. Marcos’ sense of history told him that, even after the declaration of
martial law, Congress must be allowed to hold at least one session before it is
gaveled to adjournment, in order that history can record the fact that Marcos
did not close the lawmaking branch of government by his proclamation of
martial law. His thinking then had something to do with his plans for the
Constitutional Convention.
Of greater importance, however, was the consideration of Aquino’s arrest.
He was No. 1 in the “order of battle” outlined in accordance with the martial law
plan. Marcos was particularly agitated early in the morning of September 22,
1972, when he was informed about a story coming out in his own Daily Ex-
press quoting Aquino’s threat to escape Marcos’ martial law dragnet, if he is
not arrested within the first few hours. An Aquino leading a resistance
movement in the hills would have rendered martial law inutile and, of greater
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
gravity, exposed Marcos’ very life to Aquino’s will.
Thus, the Enrile ambush had to be staged so that Aquino could be caged.
I shudder in disbelief that Aquino did not avail of a 40-minute interregnum
on the night of September 22,1972, to carry out his threat to evade Marcos’
dragnet when he might have done so before his arrest at about 12:10 a.m. on
September 23. Aquino had the full 40 minutes to flee to some temporary haven
from Room 1701 of the Manila Hilton where he was meeting with
other members of a Senate-House conference committee on an omnibus bill
amending the Tariff Code.
The 40-minute lease on freedom that Aquino could have had was offered
him in three separate ways by men who were not themselves certain about the
justice of what they knew was going to be done to the Tarlac senator. Behaving
in the best traditions of people at war buying insurance just in case their
side at the moment did not achieve complete victory, the offerors were
Secretary of Defense Enrile himself, then Press Secretary now Information
Secretary Francisco S. Tatad and Col. Romeo Gatan, chief of the Rizal
Constabulary Command. All three told me in confidence months after the
imposition of martial law that they gave Aquino a chance to escape the Manila
Hilton that fateful night of September 22. Just how those goodwill messages
were relayed to Aquino, the three did not tell me. Anyhow, colleagues of Aquino
told of several phone calls received by the senator at Room 1701 before his
arrest.
The nagging question still is, why didn’t Aquino take advantage of the
warning that martial law had been declared and that he was going to be
arrested. One theory is that Aquino might have suspected that the friendly calls
from Enrile, Tatad and Gatan could be a ploy set up by Marcos to make him
flee from the Manila Hilton so that he could be gunned down as an ordinary
fugitive. Another theory is that Aquino, along with other political leaders,
erroneously assumed that, even if Marcos declared martial law, there would
still be a free press to make heroes and martyrs out of those who would be
detained by the soldiers of Marcos! How little background they have on the
capacity of Marcos for overkill operations.
The last men with whom Aquino enjoyed the spirit of freedom were Senate
Majority Leader Arturo M. Tolentino, Senators Ambrosio S. Padilla, Lorenzo G.
Teves and John H. Osmena, and House Majority Leader Marcelino R. Veloso,
among others. They were in session at Room 1701 of the Manila Hilton as
Senate-House conferees on the Tariff Code.
At about 1 1 p.m., Aquino started receiving telephone calls, and each time
he got through answering a call, he would turn pale for a few seconds before
becoming his usual bouncing self. The last call that Aquino got came at about
1 2:1 0 a.m. of September 23, when most of those inside the room noted Aquino
shouting into the receiver: “Pumanhik ka!” (You come up!) Then, Aquino
motioned Sonny Osmena to follow him to the bathroom where he declared:
“Sonny, I think I am going to be arrested. Martial law has been declared.” Young
Osmena insisted that Aquino inform their other colleagues about it. Emerging
from the bathroom, Aquino addressed his colleagues: “Gentlemen, Marcos has
just proclaimed martial law, and I am being arrested. The arresting team is
downstairs at the hotel lobby waiting for me. But, I told Col. Gatan to come up
here and get me by himself. I promised him that my boys won’t fire at him . . .
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
A dark chapter is inserting itself once more into our troubled history. I hope and
pray that the dark night descending upon our beloved country would come to
an early end. It’s been nice being with you, gentlemen.”
In disbelief, Senator Padilla remained seated and kept saying, This cannot
be, this cannot be, as he puffed endlessly at his pipe.
“Are you sure, brod? Are you sure that martial law is upon us?” Senator
Tolentino kept asking.
Before Aquino could satisfy all questions, Col. Gatan, a former
Constabulary captain whom Aquino took care of as his protege, promoted to
major and then lieutenant colonel and appointed as Tarlac Constabulary
commander, came gently knocking at the door in quest of Aquino. Gatan
apologized to the members of Congress for his intrusion, as he handed Aquino
a brown envelope which contained a xerox copy of an “arrest and detain” order
signed by Enrile. When Aquino demanded the original before he would go with
Gatan, the PC commander, with his gun holster noticeably unhooked, declared
that he had personal orders from President Marcos to arrest the senator. A
massacre right then and there could have immediately ensued, but Aquino was
quick to shout to his bodyguards: “Tahimik lang kayo, mga bata!” (Take it easy,
boys.)
“Do I have any choice?” Aquino asked Gatan.
“Not anymore, sir. I am sorry, sir.” Gatan replied.
Aquino shook hands with all his congressional colleagues and whispered
some instructions to his boys before he went out peacefully into the dark night
of infamy that Marcos had signalled from Malacanang.
Radio Newscaster Ronnie Nathaniels was waiting anxiously to inform his
DZHP radio audience on the 2 a.m. broadcast that Senator Aquino had been
arrested by government troops. But he never did go on the air. Metrocom
troopers entered his studio shortly before 2 a.m. and told everyone to “go home,
martial law is on.”
Shortly before 2 a.m. Heherson “Sonny” Alvarez drowsily answered a
telephone call from Lopita A. Concio, a television directress and younger sister
of Senator Aquino. She called to inform Sonny that Ninoy had been arrested by
the military and that Marcos has declared martial law.
Alvarez immediately, slipped out of his rented U.P. Village apartment,
which had also served as a common office for himself, and fellow Convention
Delegates Sotero H. Laurel, Capulong and Roco. He hid out in the house of a
friend for several days, but informed Convention President Diosdado
Macapagal that he was alive and well. Alvarez had ascertained earlier that he
was among the Convention delegates being sought by the military for custodial
detention.
Instead of turning himself in, Alvarez collaborated with some fellow
Convention delegates in the production of an underground propaganda
newssheet right in the City of Manila. It was at this point that the military issued
a “shoot to kill order for Alvarez. On learning about the “shoot to kill order,
Alvarez turned down repeated overtures from his own political ally, Isabela
Governor Faustino Dy, and Delegate Celso Gangan, that he surrender
peacefully and support Marcos in the Constitutional Convention.
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When he finally convinced himself that life was becoming so uncomfortable
for him in Manila, Alvarez sought the help of some Convention delegates from
Mindanao in making an escape to Sabah through Zamboanga and Sulu. He
made good his exit from the Philippines via that route in late November, 1 972.
Alvarez proceeded to Germany and then somehow obtained a visa to the
United States where he joined Manglapus in setting up the “Movement for a
Free Philippines.”
The arrest of Aquino at the Manila Hilton was to be duplicated in a thousand
other places all over the country wherever those persons listed in the AFP
“order of battle” may be found; some of them were forcibly dragged out of their
homes as in the case of Luis R. Mauricio, general manager-publisher of the
anti-Marcos Kislap-Graphic magazine, which published the lurid details of
Marcos’ romance with Hollywood starlet Dovie Beams. The arrests started on
the late night of September 22 and continued for several days as some of the
military’s quarries were either absent from their homes or have temporarily
eluded arresting teams.
The deployment by Marcos of the entire armed forces to enforce martial
law turned out to be an unnecessary show of force. As a matter of fact, the
entire exercise of martial law was absolutely unnecessary, if the objective were
only to fight off the pockets of rebellion going on in the countrysides.
The only instance of armed resistance to the military efforts to enforce
Marcos’ martial law edict involved a pitched battle between guards at the
“Iglesia ni Kristo” compound in Diliman, Quezon City (near the University of the
Philippines), and Constabulary troopers. A team of PC-Metrocom troopers, act-
ing on orders issued by Enrile and by authority of the President, sought to
padlock the INK-owned Eagle Broadcasting Network which operates radio
station DZEC and a television station under construction within the INK
compound. However, the armed INK security guards would not let the Metro-
corn troopers enter without direct orders from the religious supremo, Bishop
Erano Manalo. And the INK guards would not dare wake up the religious
supremo at the ungodly hour of 3 a.m. Neither would the heady Metrocom
troopers wait for word from any god, except Marcos. The Metrocom team leader
declared that his group would force its way through. And they tried.
However, the INK security guards, who were armed with Thompson sub-
machine guns blazed away at the first two arrogant Metrocom troopers nearest
the INK gates, and they sought cover to await the wave of assaults they were
anticipating from the rest of the raiding teams. Sure enough, the Metro-
com raiders, apparently thinking that the declaration of martial law had scared
the daylights out of the INK guards, sought to assault the fortress, but they were
held at bay.
The Metrocom raiding team was almost wiped out to a man in the ensuing
30 minutes of gun-battle with the fanatical INK guards. The INK guards had by
this time not suffered any major casualty, except superficial wounds from the
bad aims of the Metrocom soldiers.
In interregnum, the leader of the raiding team radioed for reenforcements
from Camp Crame, just about two miles away.
Enrile, who was at his war room at Camp Aguinaldo monitoring precisely
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
the kind of incidents as the one in progress at the INK compound, gave orders
that the re-enforcing troopers should stay beyond range of the guns of the INK
guards until he himself could arrive at the scene of the only armed resistance
to martial law.
The secretary of defense correctly assessed the situation. The INK guards
were not resisting the entry of Metrocom troopers to protect the radio station.
They just don’t want the Constabulary to enter the compound, which they
consider to be sacred and forbidden grounds to anyone without the blessings
of Bishop Manalo.
By the time Enrile reached the INK compound, angry Metrocom troopers
have already accounted for 12 dead INK guards. They were crying for more
blood to avenge the death of their comrades in the earlier skirmishes.
Using a bullhorn mounted on top of a Metrocom car, Enrile approached the
INK guard under a white flag of truce. He shouted repeatedly through the
portable “This is Secretary Enrile, your friend. Stop shooting. Martial law has
been declared by President Marcos. The military has come to close down your
radio station. We are not interested in your church or other properties. If you
don’t lay down your arms, we will finish you off with all the might of the armed
forces of the Philippines.”
Presently, the leader of the INK guards emerged at the gates and sought a
conference with Enrile. Under a flag of truce, the two talked, and the INK radio
station was eventually sealed and taken off the air.
There were some who eluded arrests by various means. Former
Ambassador Amelito R. Mutuc avoided arrest when the First Lady, Imelda,
demanded that Mutuc’s name be taken out of the “order of battle,” arguing that
Amelito had collaborated with her in some projects to win over certain hostile
delegate factions in the Constitutional Convention to the side of Malacanang.
Mutuc’s name, along with several thousand others, was included in a so-
called custodial detention list prepared by Marcos and the military high
command. The persons included in the list are either political enemies of the
President, political enemies of the President’s political friends and/or business
and economic rivals. They were to be taken into custody by the military upon
the imposition of martial law, not because they are subversives, but to prevent
them from agitating, or organizing themselves, against the new order.
However, most of the persons listed in the “order of battle” fell into the
Marcos martial law dragnet. None of the members of Congress or the delegates
to the Constitutional convention tagged for arrest ever tried to escape. By their
readiness to submit to arrest, they immediately disproved the accusation that
they had conspired with the Communists to overthrow the Republic. As a matter
of fact, one of the “most wanted” men, Joaquin P. Roces, publisher of the
Manila Times who was out of his Quezon City residence when a raiding
Metrocom team went there to arrest him, drove by himself to Camp Crame and
placed himself in military custody on being informed by his wife over car phone
that martial law had been declared and that he was being sought by the
troopers of Marcos.
No leader of consequence wanted to leave the country during a month-
period before September 22 even in the face of convincing proofs that Marcos
was sculpturing the rapidly deteriorating situation to justify a declaration of
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
martial law. It was precisely their fear that martial law was imminent that made
them firm up their individual resolve to be in the Philippines, when Marcos takes
what they thought would be an irrational plunge towards political suicide. They
believed then that martial law would give them the colorful scenario to become
national heroes. Besides, none of them wanted to be accused by any-
one that when martial law was imposed he was conveniently out of the country.
It was going to be a priceless badge of honor to be arrested by the military when
martial law is declared. One man who thought he was going to be arrested
along with the critics of Marcos was former Speaker Jose B. Laurel, Jr. When
Marcos suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus on August 22,
1971 , then Speaker Laurel, Jr., one of the foremost champions of civil liberties,
roundly criticized the President. He called Marcos’ act “a monumental affront to
civil liberty,” the grounds given by the President for the suspension “grossly
exaggerated” and Marcos “an unpopular President” embarked on a “fishing
expedition” for evidence “if not on a deliberate campaign of intimidation,
harassment and persecution of political enemies.”
Laurel cried: “Let the President declare martial law! Let us close this
Congress! Let the strong survive!”
Thus, during the first few days of martial rule, Laurel would shout at his
favorite hangout on Roxas Boulevard within hearing distance of heady military
officers: “Why doesn’t Marcos, a dictator whom I helped rise to his present
status, order my arrest now? Why is he punishing a Laurel this way?”
Laurel and the other political leaders critical of Marcos were so oblivious of
the warnings raised by the leading Philippine weekly newsmagazine, the Free
Press, 20 months before September, 1972, that Marcos was contriving a
situation to justify a declaration of martial law. The Free Press periscoped
what life would be under martial law in this wise: (*9. issue of Jan. 23, 1971)
“With the courts and Congress reduced to impotence and the independent
press shut up — with publishers who dare to disagree with Marcos placed under
house arrest or in concentration camps where they would be joined sooner or
later by outraged justices of the Supreme Court, senators and representatives
who would not lick the boots of Marcos, as well as others who would not submit
to tyranny — the nation would be polarized. The Philippines would be divided
into Marcos collaborators and those who love liberty and are branded
misguided elements (as during the Japanese Occupation) and declared
enemies of the Marcos state, x x x
“Life under a regime of martial law or a Marcos military dictatorship would
be little different from life during the Japanese Occupation. How many would
submit to it? And how would Marcos ever dare restore civil law? Would he dare
to leave Malacanang? Would he not be compelled to declare himself Presi-
dent for life, that is, a dictator forever? And how long would ‘forever’ be?”
This warning went unheeded; no national leader would betray the slightest
sign of fear of martial law within himself.
Nevertheless, a number of prominent Filipinos who were also in the “order
of battle,” priority “A,” were able to leave the Philippines before Sept. 22, 1972,
under circumstances which they now advert to with spiritual pride as “the will of
God.”
Eugenio Lopez, Sr., patriarch of the Lopez economic-political empire, had
left earlier in June to receive an award from his alma mater, Harvard, and from
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
there decided to go on his annual foreign sojourn which usually lasts from three
to four months.
Salvador Araneta, social thinker and proprietor of the FEATI Institute and
Araneta University, left for the United States to visit his daughter. Actually,
Araneta wanted to “cool it,” having been bitterly disillusioned by the defeat in
the Constitutional Convention of the ban-Marcos resolution. He was one of
the outspoken critics of President Marcos in the Convention.
The challenger of Marcos in the 1969 presidential elections, Sergio
Osmena, Sr., left Manila on Sept. 16 on a trip that he had kept postponing. He
did not want to leave because Cebu City, whose mayorship he assumed on
Jan. 1,1972 for the 5th time around, had serious financial problems that
required his personal attention.
“I was told by the Blessed Virgin to leave the country,” Serging recalls with
piety.
Osmena had made a promise to Julio Cardinal Rosales, who is the
archbishop of Cebu, that he would make a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, in
mid-1972. The cardinal suggested that a bath in the blessed waters at the
Shrine of the Most Blessed Virgin in Lourdes might cure the numerous physical
infirmities he suffers as a result of the bombing at Plaza Miranda.* 10
(* 10 . See Chapter on “Infrastructure for Martial Law.”)
When Osmena finally left for Lourdes, with his wife (Lourdes de la Rama)
and son, Tommy, he took a route that would have taken him to Los Angeles,
then to New York, and Washington, D.C. for a medical check-up at the Walter
Reed Hospital and projected talks with his friends in the State Department, and
then to France. He was still in Los Angeles when martial law was declared.
The initial reaction of Lopez, Araneta and Osmena upon learning that
Marcos had declared martial law in Manila was to return posthaste to the
Philippines and join the expected public outcry against the Palace move.
Besides, they have vast private interests in the Philippines to protect. However,
they decided that prudence may be the better part of valor — and waited for
developments from home.
Only one of the more prominent leaders who had left Manila before the
advent of martial law seems comparatively satisfied that he got out when he
did. He is former Mayor Antonio J. Villegas who now lives in Portola Valley with
his family. Villegas, tagged as one of the luckiest and successful man in the
asphalt jungle of Manila, was able to spirit some of his liquid assets out of the
Philippines.
Villegas assumed the premier post at Manila’s City Hall upon the death of
colorful Mayor Lacson on April 1 5,1 962. He won an election to the mayoralty in
his own right in 1963 and a reelection in 1967, despite the personal campaign
waged against him by President Marcos and the First Lady. However, he failed
to win another term in the 1971 elections, losing his post by a slim margin to
Congressman Ramon D. Bagatsing, a Liberal, who used to be a “hatchet-man”
for Marcos in his capacity as chairman of the Presidential Agency for Reforms
and Government Operations. Villegas attributed his defeat to the emotional
backlash of the Plaza Miranda bombing. Villegas left Manila on the day
Bagatsing was sworn into office on January 1, 1972, for San Jose, California,
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
where he had been making quiet preparations to settle down since 1970.
However, Tony returned posthaste to Manila a fortnight later when his
father, Epifanio T. Villegas, warned him that investigators were trying to lay the
blame on him for the Plaza Miranda massacre. The former mayor demanded
that charges be filed against him by investigators instead of vilifying him for the
grenade-bombing by innuendo in press releases. He was never charged.
During his fight to protect his name, Villegas got A-1 information from his friends
in the defense and intelligence establishments that Marcos was about to
declare martial law. In a series of meetings with Liberal party leaders and
friends, the last being with Senator Aquino. Jr., on August 19, 1972, Villegas
warned his colleagues about the Marcos plot, telling them at the same time that
he would not have his family caught by the Marcos power-grab. He finally took
the members of his immediate family out of Manila on August 24, 1 972 — four
weeks before martial law was declared — and brought them to the United
States.
Former Senator Manglapus was one man who didn’t want to leave the
Philippines, mainly because of the imminent declaration of martial law. He was
out of Manila barely 24 hours when word reached him in his Tokyo Hotel that
Marcos had finally done it. His wife, Pacita Manglapus, got through to the
senator before armed forces signal corps men had shut off the overseas circuits
of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company and managed to inform
him that martial law had been declared and that soldiers have come to their
Makati resident to arrest him. Pacita said that the soldiers would not believe
that Raul had left for Tokyo in the afternoon of Sept. 22 that they had to search
every room and closet and in the backyard to make sure that their quarry was
not just hiding out within the compound.
Manglapus’ initial reaction was anger at Garcia for having “forced” him to
leave and consternation that he was out of the country when martial law was
declared. He wanted to fly back home and join the “resistance” movement; he
packed his flight bags and headed for the Haneda airport, hoping to catch the
first available flight to Manila. Fortunately, no Manila-bound plane was flying
out of Tokyo as Haneda had received word that the Manila International Airport
had been closed to all air traffic — by Philippine air force supervisors assigned
to secure the port of entry for the martial regime. When Manglapus received
news that the MIA had been re-opened to international air traffic as of Sept. 25,
by which time overseas telephone communications have also been restored,
he telephoned Pacita and advised her that he was on his way back home. He
explained his decision to return.
“But there is no resistance battle to join here,“ Mrs. Manglapus protested.
“All your fellow politicos and allies in the fight against Marcos have been jailed;
others are either cowering in fear, waiting to be arrested at any time, or have
openly pledged their support to the martial law regime!"
It turned out that, during the 36-hour isolation of Manila by overseas
telephone and telegraph facilities from the outside world, Mrs. Manglapus
busied herself, contacting Raul’s friends on what she should tell him when they
get the chance to talk again by overseas phone. The almost unanimous advise
given was that Manglapus, lucky enough at having eluded arrest, should
proceed immediately to the United States and organize the overseas opposition
to the Marcos martial rule; they opined that any parliamentary resistance to the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
regime would have better chances of succeeding, if world attention could be
drawn to the power-grab pulled by Marcos. Manglapus, they advised Pacita,
would be a most articulate pacific crusader against martial law in the
Philippines; he could better exploit his contacts and sources in the State
Department and other foreign governments, having been a foreign secretary
and well-travelled leader of the young Christian Social Movement in the
Philippines.
“Are you sure this is their collective advise?” Manglapus demanded to know
of his wife. And when he was assured that it was, Manglapus declared: “All
right, I fear for your safety, but no sacrifice would be too great. I will do it. But
you must assure the people you have been talking to that they should never
collaborate with Marcos; they should not fall for a possible intrigue that I will
organize the overseas opposition to martial law so that I will be imposed by the
U.S. as a Ngo Din Diem in the event of Marcos’ fall from power.”
Manglapus then proceeded to Honolulu where he prevailed upon two
American citizens of Filipino descent who were campaigners in his earlier bid
for the Senate to make a trip to Manila and arrange for the escape of Pacita
and her children. Senator Edward Kennedy worked out the grant of an entry
visa for the U.S. for Mrs. Manglapus and company once they have left the
Philippines surreptitiously and reached the safety of a third country.
Unknown to Pacita was that the anxiety of her husband over her and the
children being completely at the mercy of Marcos was such that he was
determined to return to the Philippines. This was the second time in the life of
this selfless man that there was to be no hesitation in sacrificing himself for his
loved ones if no other choice were possible.
In the book, Under the Red Sun, a best seller after World War II, author
Forbes J. Monaghan related how Raul refused to flee even after being
repeatedly warned that the dreaded Japanese military police were on the way
to arrest him for publishing an anti-Japanese underground newspaper. “If I
escape,” Manglapus explained, “they will take my mother instead.”
Manglapus was picked up by the Japanese soldiers, tortured in the
dungeons of Fort Santiago in Manila, and was given a choice to do propaganda
work for the enemy — or die. Manglapus refused to collaborate with the
Japanese and escaped execution, Monaghan said, only because an order had
come from Tokyo in October, 1942, to woo the Filipinos by showing clem-
ency to political prisoners. Manglapus was court-martialed and sent to prison
from where he escaped in August, 1944, to join the guerrillas in the hills.
Only an offer of Tony Garcia to join him in going back to the Philippines
with the condition that they first attempt to smuggle the entire Manglapus family
out made Raul reconsider his plan to return to the Philippines without delay.
Manglapus may have been touched by the readiness of Garcia to leave
his own family, then safe in San Francisco, and the argument of his long time
aide and political associate that Manglapus was indispensable to the
organization of a movement for the restoration of Philippine freedom in view of
the lack of Filipinos in the U.S. with sufficient stature willing to fight Marcos
openly.
Manglapus was scheduled to leave for the United States as early as July
in accordance with a program he had authorized Tony Garcia and two other
Ateneo graduates to prepare for him. Actually, it was Garcia who sold the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
original idea of the program to Manglapus, which included speaking
engagements and conferences with Filipino groups in the United States for
the purpose of drawing their support to the infant Christian Social Movement in
the Philippines. But Manglapus refused to leave during what he called a “critical
hour” in the country, partly because there were those talks about the possible
imposition of martial law. He also wanted to stick it out in the Constitutional
Convention, where he was the chairman of the Committee on Suffrage and
Electoral Reforms, so that he could continue his opposition to “further invasion”
by Marcos of the charter meet. Indicative of Marcos’ successful forays into the
Convention was the defeat of the ban-Marcos resolution and the adoption of
the proposal to shift the Republic’s government from the presidential to the
parliamentary form. But Manglapus’ refusal to leave for the U.S. had already
caused two postponements of his programmed speaking engagements.
So, on September 20, an impatient Antonio Garcia barged into Manglapus’
law office in Makati and jokingly told his secretary, Evelyn Ibarra, that he “would
give our boss a talking to.” Tony told an irritated Manglapus to “leave now and
fulfill your speaking engagements.” “We are losing face with the Filipino leaders
in the U.S. who have so willingly organized these conferences where you have
been scheduled to speak. These people are potential contributors to the
campaign chest of the CSM. Besides, two postponements of your schedule is
just too much!” Garcia declared.
Manglapus reminded Garcia that martial law was imminent. “What will
people say if martial law finds me out of the country, Tony? I will never live
down their taunts that I deserted them during a critical hour in our country’s life!”
the CSM leader declared.
“Well, you can always come back!” Garcia put in the clincher that finally led
Manglapus to assure Tony that he would leave for the U.S. within 48 hours.
Manglapus not only did not return to Manila upon the imposition of martial
rule; he was soon joined in the U.S. by the man who providentially taunted him,
vigorously argued with him, to leave the Philippines when he did.
It was when Garcia finally teamed up with Manglapus in the United States
that the plan to set up the “Movement for a Free Philippines” began to take
shape.
Garcia himself was supposed to leave for the United States with
Manglapus. However, he decided to stay behind for just a few days in order to
attend to the final details of his plan to set up a packaging plant in Quezon City.
The spectacular escape of Garcia from the Philippines right under the very
noses of the military supervisors of Marcos at the Manila International Airport
is one blunder the martial regime will never be able to live down. This man who
had given Marcos hell in the media during the 1965 presidential elections
and should have been arrested on the night martial law was implemented
escaped through the MIA on a special passport on account of a comedy of
errors on the part of confused airport personnel.
Garcia abandoned the Lacson residence on M. Earnshaw street when he
learned of the imposition of martial law. He slept in the house of a squatter in
Makati, Rizal, by night. During the day, he intentionally entered Camp
Aguinaldo on the pretext of having been summoned by the chief of the Judge
Advocate General’s office, Brig. General Tagumpay Nanadiego, whom Garcia
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
had never met before. Garcia, who has been associated for almost a decade
with Manglapus as the closest aide to the brilliant senator and one-time
presidential candidate, thought wisely that the army headquarters at Camp
Aguinaldo would be the last place Metrocom troopers would search for the alter
ego of Manglapus.
Garcia was gambling on the chance that Nanadiego would remember the
one story, albeit a small one, that Garcia caused to be published in Manila
newspapers announcing the candidacy for a congressional seat that
Nanadiego, then a retired colonel, was aspiring for in Quezon province. Garcia
did the free publicity job for Nanadiego several months before the imposition of
martial law upon the request of a Nanadiego nephew. It was a now-or-never
time, Garcia decided upon entering the army camp, for him to collect an I.O. U.
Aware that it was only a matter of time when he would be arrested and
thrown into jail together with those who had, at one time or another, wrote
stories critical of Marcos, Garcia kept pestering Nanadiego, who did remember
Garcia’s gratis et amore work for him, for an exit permit which at that time and
for two months after that could only be granted by Secretary of Defense Juan
Ponce Enrile. In one of those days, Garcia had to quickly scamper away from
Nanadiego’s office when he saw Tatad and Undersecretary for Home Defense
Jose M. Crisol, who both knew about his close links to Manglapus, coming into
the office of the JAGO head together with all the ranking generals of the martial
law regime. If T atad and Crisol saw Garcia, they would have demanded to know
why Garcia was not in a military stockade. Anyway, after waiting for several
days under sun and rain and standing in the mud outside an army
building together with hundreds of others also seeking exit permits, Nanadiego
handed Garcia his passport, saying that it had been signed. However,
Nanadiego told Garcia that it was not Enrile who had signed the passport but
“just one of my boys”. Garcia concluded that Nanadiego simply wanted to get
rid of him knowing that an unauthorized signature would not be honored at the
airport anyway or that Nanadiego fell for the “matter-of-life-and-death” story
about the Garcia children being sick in the United States and left alone at home
while Mrs. Garcia was at work as commercial analyst in the Philippine
Consulate General in San Francisco. (Garcia’s wife was promptly removed
from her position and ordered to go home with her entire family after it was
ascertained that Garcia had indeed escaped from the Philippines).
At any rate, Garcia decided to risk departure on the strength of that
signature which Garcia in America later learned was that of Undersecretary of
Munitions Manuel Salientes (ironically and significantly, Nanadiego and
Salientes were later summarily removed from their positions). Garcia brought
his two small travelling bags, which he was later to claim to airport officials
contained confidential government documents after cleverly checking them in,
and booked passage to Hongkong, a route which he decided would not arouse
the suspicion of the military. He correctly figured that any traveler making a
straight flight to the United States in the early days of martial law would be
heavily screened at the Manila International Airport which was under the direct
control of the Philippine Air Force.
Garcia waited until it was almost boarding time before he showed his ticket
and checked in his two small bags to give the ticket agents no opportunity to
verify the story that he was on a rush confidential mission for the army and thus
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
had no time to obtain the Enrile signature and clearances from the Office of
the President of the Philippines, the National Bureau of Investigation and the
Department of Commerce and Industry. Clearance from the DCI was required
of him since he was travelling on a government passport, being the husband of
a commercial analyst.
Since he turned out to be the only passenger leaving Manila that day, the
airline personnel were happy to find something to do and so promptly
dispatched Garcia’s bags to the waiting plane after having been assured by
Garcia that he had all the necessary clearances. When the ticket agents found
that all that was valid of Garcia’s papers was the tax clearance which
he obtained before martial law from the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the poor
agents did not know what to do since they could not very well cross out Garcia
from the passenger list having already loaded his bags on the plane.
That was when Garcia set into play his planned bluff and bluster act, setting
off a comedy of errors that enabled him to escape. Garcia told the bewildered
agents in the proper conspiratorial tone of his secret assignment for the military
arrangements for which, Garcia said, were already known to the immigration
officials on the second floor. The airline people were so relieved to have their
problem taken off their hands that they promptly waved Garcia on to the
immigration counter upstairs.
When immigration officials demanded arrogantly why his passport did not
contain the signature of Enrile, Garcia thought that his gambit had finally come
to naught. But he knew that to sheepishly back away would make matters
worse so he tried his last card. Garcia raised his voice and cursed the
immigration people for their lack of interest in the doings of the new martial law
regime. He ordered the officials to check with the office of the President at
Malacanang and asked to speak to General Nanadiego knowing full well that a
recent arson at the MIA had made all telephone lines inoperative.
When one immigration official dared ask what Garcia’s confidential mission
was, Garcia shouted: “You SOB, I already told you it is confidential and you
want to know what is confidential?”
But when Garcia demanded immigration to stamp his passport with
approval to depart, the spirit of survival among the officials overcame their awe
of Garcia’s diatribes on civilian bureaucratic stupidities. They produced copies
of Enrile’s decrees that only his signature was to be valid on passports. They
reminded Garcia that they were only following orders and that they had families
to support.
When Garcia told the officials that they would bear the responsibility if he
missed his flight and the possible loss of the documents already on the plane,
the immigration people played Pontius Pilate by requesting Garcia to check
with the military authorities at the transit lounge of the burnt out airport
building a mile away and to come back for the immigration approval if the
military said okay.
After cursing the officer collecting airport fees for trying to stop him from
boarding the transit bus from the Miramar check-in building for the trip to the
transit lounge at the MIA terminal because he was not yet cleared by
immigration, Garcia simply boarded the vehicle hiding the immigration embar-
cation card jutting out from his passport that gave him as a passenger not yet
allowed to depart.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Garcia’s well calculated move to check in at the last moment and the
ensuing hassle over his lack of the required signature produced the delay he
had hoped would deny airport officials the time and equanimity of mind to verify
his story. If there were military authorities at the transit lounge Garcia never
saw them. The ground stewardess, probably harassed by the pilot to get that
solitary passenger delaying the flight up on the aircraft, told Garcia to get on
board quickly. The desire of Marcos to keep the presence of the military to a
minimum at the ports of entry to show the world that the Philippines was still
under civilian control helped make the escape of a man who was to figure
mightily in propaganda work exposing Marcos to the world. Up to this day, there
is no record in the Philippines of Garcia having left the country.
Upon arriving in Hong Kong, Garcia phoned his wife in San Francisco to
warn her about being tricked into flying to Manila for some emergency reason
at the very time that her husband was winging across the Pacific to rejoin her
and their children. The Garcia odyssey must be rated as one of the great
escapes from the Marcos dictatorship not only because of its almost
just-like-in-the-movies circumstances but more so because the man who made
that hegira was to again make hell for Marcos and those promoting his regime
abroad.
It was partly Garcia’s sixth sense and devil’s advocate skepticism that
stymied my assignment to stop the scheduled demonstrations against Imelda
Marcos at the inauguration of the Philippine Center building in New York City
in November of 1974. His astute analysis of our plans and intentions frustrated
the trap Kokoy strategists had set for Manglapus that would have discredited
and wrecked the Movement For a Free Philippines. As I later told audiences in
America after my defection, the MFP had more success with me than I with
them. In a way, the vigilance of Garcia precipitated my own gradual and
smouldering inclination to break with the Marcos dictatorship.
I had intimated to Garcia during our first meeting October of 1 974 in a small
restaurant across the Commodore Hotel in New York City my growing
disenchantment with the Marcos government. That was supposed to be first of
a series of face-to-face meetings between a panel of MFP officials and
representatives of the Marcos administration to discuss terms and conditions
for a possible meeting between Manglapus and Imelda. Garcia was elected by
the MFP to head the panel to meet with my own panel. He was later to tell me
after my defection that he believed I was becoming disillusioned with Mr.
Marcos but (Garcia) told me he thought I was merely buying “insurance”.
Like Garcia, Col. Eleuterio “Terry Magtanggol” Adevoso, head of the ROTC
Hunter’s Guerillas during the Japanese Occupation and one-time secretary of
labor under President Macapagal, eluded the first arresting party sent out to get
him from his Paranaque residence. By that time, Adevoso, who has been
accused of allegedly conspiring with Sergio Osmena, Sr. in an alleged plot to
assassinate Marcos, hid in the houses of friends, transferring at night and never
spending more than 24 hours in one place. When his friends in the military
establishment, whom he had contacted, obtained assurances for him that he
would be allowed to stay in a hospital under arrest, Adevoso yielded to an
emissary of Secretary Enrile.
Newsmen Ernesto O. Granada, of the Manila Chronicle, and Luis D.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Beltran, of the Evening News, also eluded arrest that night. However, their more
distinguished colleagues who belonged to that exclusive band known as the
“gang of Marcos critics,” notably Teodoro M. Locsin, Sr., publisher of the Free
Press; Napoleon Rama, senior staff writer, also of the Free Press and delegate
to the Constitutional Convention; Amando Doronilla, newly-named editor of the
Manila Chronicle; Maximo Soliven, columnist of the Manila Times; and Amelita
Reysio-Cruz, of the Manila Daily Bulletin; Jose Mari Velez, newscaster of
Channel 5; Rosalinda Galang, of the Manila Times; Rolando Fadul, of the
Taliba; Go Eng Kuan, of the Chinese Commercial News; Veronica Yuyitung,
wife of deported Rizal Yuyitung; Rogelio Arienda, radio commentator; and
Francisco “Soc” Rodrigo, Taliba columnist, fell quickly into the Marcos martial
law dragnet.
Senator Jose W. Diokno was arrested at 3 a.m. at his Roxas Boulevard
residence.
Granada hid out for several days in the house of a friend. When he sought
my advice, through an intermediary, on what he should do, I said: “If Ernie is in
the Greater Manila area, he should surrender to the Constabulary because the
team assigned to get him might become trigger-happy with each unsuc-
cessful day of looking for him.” Granada and Beltran were eventually
surrendered by Col. James G. Barbers, deputy chief of police of Manila, to
Camp Crame authorities.
But what puzzles the newsmen’s tribe in Manila is the arrest of Ruben
Cusipag, of the Evening News; Roberto Ordonez, of the Philippines Herald; and
Manuel F. Almario, senior staff member of the Philippine News Service.
Cusipag was a vociferous habitue at the National Press Club; so with Ordonez.
Almario, on the other hand, was an ardent participant in the impromptu debates
at the NPC bar who had written a few articles in praise of China’s Chairman
Mao TseTung. Ordonez had at one time done an in-depth series of articles on
units of the New People’s Army operating in the Bicol area. To console them,
however, for what they felt was an unwarranted arrest and detention by the
martial regime, NPC wags offered the salve that they were probably charged
with “impersonating a radical.” Why not, the NPC wags would shout, hasn’t the
martial regime made humor-mongering a punishable offense?
While most of the Manila newsmen are trying to bear up to the difficulties
under the martial regime, one strong-willed intellectual has steadfastly refused
to compromise with the dictatorship. He is in hiding from Marcos’ agents, but
he is busy grinding out mimeographed newssheets for the underground
press.
This man, Antonio Zumel, former two-term president of the NPC and
versatile day-off reliever in the editorial staff of the Manila Daily Bulletin, bears
watching. Although he has reportedly teamed up with the New People’s Army
without necessarily being a card-carrying member of the Communist Party,
Zumel is likely to surface one day to be an outstanding leader of his country.
Tony’s elder brother, Col. Jimmy Zumel, is a ranking officer in the intelligence
division of the Presidential Security Command. Young Zumel was once openly
denounced by Marcos for alleged links with a group of arms suppliers to the
NPA. Zumel denied the charge vehemently; he even swore to his brother
Jimmy that he was not a Communist.
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On the night martial law was declared, Zumel was as usual having a late
night drinking spree at the NPC bar. He was summoned to the telephone by a
caller at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 23, after which he invited some of the boys to
transfer with him to Taboy’s “Cinco Litros,” a small bar at Ermita whose owner
could sing lewd songs even in polite society. Zumel’s group took a cab from the
NPC. On the way, he told his colleagues, including Bobby Ordonez, that martial
law has been proclaimed. When the taxicab reached the Rizal monument area
on the Luneta along Roxas Boulevard, Zumel commanded the car to stop and
told his companions that he was getting out. “Please take care of the fare,
Bobby,” he said addressing Ordonez. To the rest, he said: “This is going to be
a long night. I hope we will meet when the dawn of freedom breaks. All right,
guys, let’s all try to stay healthy. Till we meet again!” Tony faded into the
night. A rumor floated by the Department of Public Information claims that
Zumel has been killed in an encounter with a PC patrol in Bulacan. I know that
he is very much alive. As a matter of fact, he eluded a PC raiding team in May,
1974, in a "safehouse” in Bulacan where former newsmen Satur Ocampo
and Jose F. Lacaba were apprehended with printing paraphernalia for the
underground press. Ocampo and Lacaba indicated that the raiding team
missed catching Zumel by just about 30 minutes. I am confident Tony will
continue to elude other teams.
Zumel was the first NPC president to have declared war on Marcos’ martial
law. He was followed by then incumbent NPC President Eddie B. Monteclaro
who was authorized by martial law government to travel to New Delhi in
February, 1973, to attend a “One World” conference. Instead of returning to
Manila, Monteclaro denounced the martial law government and proceeded to
the United States to seek political asylum. I became the third NPC President to
denounce Marcos. However, I collaborated long enough with Marcos to
convince myself that the imposition of martial law was just a stratagem
employed by the President to perpetuate himself in power.
There were others who didn’t have to wait to declare themselves against
the imposition of martial law. Juan Quijano, the incorruptible lawyer of the
Philippines Free Press and lawyer-later-publisher of the Chinese Commercial
News, and newscaster Fred Espaldon of DZMT and Channel 5, hacked away
at Marcos for what they termed as a “power-grab.”
Quijano was in Taipei at the time martial law was proclaimed, having left
Manila earlier on August 12 to be on hand for the release of Quintin Yuyitung
on August 14 from imprisonment in a Taipei military garrison. He and Quintin
proceeded to the United States in December. Later, Quijano was informed by
friends in the military that the armed forces high command had “found” him
“guilty of treason” for having uttered statements against the martial regime while
he was inTaipei and upon his arrival in the United States.
Espaldon, on the other hand, went on record in the West Coast as the first
Filipino to go on the air and submit to press interviews assailing the Marcos
power grab in the Philippines. Espaldon was in San Francisco at the time,
having left Manila on September 6 on a scholarship grant from Stanford Uni-
versity.
“We expected martial law to be resorted to by Marcos,” Espaldon declared
in one of his radio-TV interviews, “but there is really no justification for it. It is
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
simply a device to perpetuate himself in power.”
Having issued that kind of fighting statement, Espaldon felt that his student
visa in the U.S. was not good enough. He could be reached by the long arm of
martial law. Again, he went on record as “the first” Filipino to seek political
asylum from the Marcos dictatorship.
Two other escapees from the Philippines who are active in the anti-Marcos
dictatorship movement in the United States are Elly Velez Pamatong and
Danny Martinez.
As the man who denounced the “Con Con” payola, Pamatong was high on
the list of persons to be arrested upon the declaration of martial law. He and
Martinez escaped through Sabah where they were jailed by Kota Kinabalu
authorities as “Marcos spies.” They were deported to the Philippines via Pala-
wan. In Palawan, they took another small boat to Brunei, where they were again
jailed by local authorities.
Somehow, Pamatong and Martinez got a letter through to the Philippine
Consul in Singapore. They wrote that they were stranded employes of a
Philippine lumber concessionaire in Indonesia and they would like to be
documented as Filipinos. They were issued Philippine passports to enable
them to go back to the Philippines. Instead of returning to the Philippines,
they proceeded to Tokyo where they contacted a United Nations representative
on refugees who asked them to choose any two countries where they would
want to seek refuge. Pamatong and Martinez chose the United States and
Canada, and then the U.N. official documented them as refugees for Canada
— not the U.S. However, enroute to Canada, Pamatong and Martinez obtained
a permit to spend a few days in the United States. They decided to stay in Los
Angeles where they are prosecuting their anti-dictatorship campaign. Martinez
now works as a secretary to former Senator Sergio Osmena, Jr.
Now a question most often asked is whether the United States government
had any advance knowledge of Marcos’ plan to impose martial law.
Of course, the U.S. embassy in Manila knew about it. As a matter of fact,
the full text of the martial law plan, officially baptized as the “Contingency Plan,”
was already in the possession of American Ambassador Henry Byroade weeks
before martial law was effectively and officially imposed in the Philippines.
However, no other man outside President Marcos knew the exact time and date
when martial law would have to be declared.
Although he has deceived many on any number of things, including his wife
but mostly the Filipino people, Marcos was not prepared to deceive the United
States government on the imposition of martial law. After all, Marcos already
knew that Ambassador Byroade knew that the Philippine President was
all set to impose martial law. He was not about to incur the hostility of the United
States government by springing a complete surprise on the power-grab he was
going to launch. President Marcos summoned Byroade for a luncheon
conference on September 22.
I myself was going to have lunch with the President on September 22.
However, I partook of my lunch together with Agent Boquiren in the
communications room near the Study Room when Marcos told me earlier in the
day that he was having a closed-door luncheon conference with the American
envoy. I have been having lunch with the President almost every day during the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
last three weeks preceding the imposition of martial law upon his instructions.
Most of the time Secretary Enrile would also be around, and occasionally so
would Undersecretary of Justice Efren Plana, who was former defense
undersecretary. It became almost an added duty on my part to lunch with the
President during those days because Marcos’ lunch hour, which was about 2
p.m., was the most convenient time for both of us to discuss the news stories
that should emanate from the Office of the President. Ever since I joined the
Marcos-owned Daily Express as its Malacanang reporter, it had become my
duty to discuss with the President what stories I would write, and subsequently
share with the other Malacanang beat reporters, which could be beamed to
Congress, the opposition quarters and other sectors to prepare their minds for
the imposition of martial law.
Earlier that day, I walked up to the Palace a little early on instructions of
Marcos the day before. When I found the official Study Room still empty, I went
inside the communications cubicle where I saw that Agent Boquiren had neatly
arranged the presidential papers consisting mostly of memoranda and notes
which had come in during the night and early in the morning from Cabinet
members and other quarters.
As I signified my intention to rummage through the papers, Boquiren said:
“O, eto, sir. Baka may mapulot ka na magandang ibalita sa column mo .”{ Here
they [the papers] are, sir. You might be able to pick out some materials for your
column). Then, recalling that I play monte, a Spanish card game, Boquiren
added: “Did you have any luck last night, sir?” I got his message and I pulled a
P50-bill out of my pocket. Boquiren left me alone to read through a paper that
could give me the biggest story of my newspaper career, although I realized
then and there that I wouldn’t be able to write it for the next day’s paper. I
consoled myself with the thought that I might be able to include it in my memoirs
— if I ever find the need to write one in my greying years.
But now I find myself writing the story for the first time, not in my memoirs,
but in this document, this instrument of my fighting faith, my own written
contribution to history, which I am confident will neither be the first nor the last.
The presidential paper that drew my undivided attention for almost thirty
minutes from the moment I handed a P50-bill to Agent Boquiren was a freshly-
typed memorandum of two pages, single spaced, on the stationery of the Office
of the Secretary, Department of National Defense, and signed by Enrile. It
was addressed to the President, naturally.
The Enrile Memorandum, dated Sept. 22, 1972, started with this line: “In
connection with your scheduled conference this noon with U.S. Ambassador
Byroade, may I remind you that the matters outlined herein below, as we have
discussed yesterday, should be emphasized by you xxx.” My recollection of the
wordings may not be as accurate as I have quoted them, but I am certain that
I have reproduced the tenor of the opening sentence of the Enrile
Memorandum. The memorandum made an outline of what the President was
to tell Byroade were the vital justifications for the imposition of martial law.
At first-blush, it would have appeared that the defense secretary was
dictating to the President on what to tell the U.S. envoy. However, the
presidential line suggested by the Enrile Memorandum for the Marcos-Byroade
conference was not an unusual orchestration of the President by a subordinate.
Then as now the President always got a proposed script from the appropriate
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
office or officer on what profound ideas, lines and even jokes to utter in any
important conference where a prepared speech would not be in order;
sometimes, two or more such proposed scripts came from different quarters. It
is not known just who among the Palace assistants started the practice of
orchestrating the President. One of the most dutiful — and most followed —
scriptwriter was the late Presidential Assistant Guillermo C. De Vega.
I found no rival script for the President to adopt in his meeting with
Ambassador Byroade. I assumed then — and I confirmed this subsequently —
that the President hardly departed from the outline of the Enrile Memorandum.
Thus, in his usual vague way of hinting about a planned course of action,
a device he often resorts to when he is compelled to telegraph a message much
against his will as in the instant meeting with Byroade, Marcos told the
American ambassador that the Maoist-oriented New People’s Army was
about to seize the City of Manila, having obtained shipments of combat
weapons and ammunitions from a foreign power; that only a resort to martial
law could stop the advance of the NPAs who are being provided with aid and
comfort by the country’s oligarchs, and misguided youth, intellectuals and
clergymen, that martial law would be needed to stop the wave of national-
ism fanned by the Supreme Court decision making it mandatory for Americans
to divest themselves of landholdings and shares of stocks in companies
organized under the Parity amendment; * 11 that the President needs an
authoritarian rule to effectuate drastic reforms in the country; and that a martial
regime would be easier for the United States government and private business
to deal with than the political system of shared responsibility among the
executive, legislative and judicial branches.
(*11. See Chapter on “Infrastructure for Martial law.)
The President chose to be deliberately vague about the timing of the
imposition of martial law, giving Byroade only the impression that he might do
it within the coming weeks, but not earlier than the next week.
Towards the end of the conference, Marcos — in accordance with the
Enrile script — informed the U.S. envoy that units of the armed forces around
the Clark air force base and Subic naval base were being “augmented” to
“insure the protection of these bases” against probable attacks by NPA
elements. The message would have been clear to Byroade: that interference
by American troops from Clark Field or Subic base with the imposition of martial
law will be repelled by Philippine troops, trained and equipped by the United
States. Surprisingly, a few weeks after the declaration of martial law, a U.S.
navy ensign and three marine privates inspecting the outer perimeter of
Subic naval base were killed in an ambush allegedly staged by supposed
remnants of a Huk liquidation squad from Bataan. The incident occurred just a
few days after receipt by the Presidential Security Command that there were
unusual troop activities within the Subic navy base.
As Byroade left, Marcos summoned me to his private study room to give
me instructions on how I would have to “guide” the other Palace beat reporters
with my own prepared news story on the meeting of the President with the U.S.
envoy. “Sir, can we now write the line that you had informed Byroade that you
are going to impose martial law?” I asked the President. He answered: “Huwag
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
mo munang sabihan iyan. "(Don't say that yet.)
Marcos then dictated his story. “Let me see,” the President looked at the
ceiling and then facing me, started the story for the day. “Sabihin mo na lang
(just say) that the President conferred with Ambassador Byroade at lunch; that
I informed him about the assessment of the military on the worsening peace
and order situation in the country; that the President outlined to the ambassador
the options available to him under the law and the Constitution; that I
emphasized to the ambassador that I have already utilized to no avail the first
two options to combat the escalating Communist rebellion, namely, the sus-
pension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus and the calling out of the
troops to quell lawless violence and rebellion; that the armed forces general
staff had advised the President to utilize all constitutional means to protect the
integrity of the Republic. You must stress that point that I have already utilized
the first two options to no avail.” At this point, I interrupted the President to warn
him that he is definitely forewarning everybody that he was about to impose
martial law. “Why don’t we just announce it, sir. Anyway, the Opposition leaders
as well as your Nacionalista critics would know about this story as they have
people monitoring the city desks of newspapers for advance information on
news from the Palace,” I suggested to the President, still trying to be a
newspaperman out for a good story.
“Oh, yes let everyone be forewarned that I am about to impose martial law.
Anyway, I have been warning that I would not hesitate to impose martial law, if
I find it necessary in the interest of national security,” the President answered.
“It’s the timing that is important as far as we are concerned.”
Obviously derailed in his development of the story for the day by my
interruption, the President ended our session by saying: “O, sigue, ikaw na ang
maglagay ngpalabok sa estorya (Okay, you may embellish the story the way
you want it.) And try to work out the story with Secretary Tatad .* I * * * * * * * * * * 12 Nasaan ba
siya? (Where is he, anyway?)”
(* 12 . The way Marcos addresses his Cabinet members and other ranking officials of his
administration, either orally or in writing, is the gauge of his temper respecting that official on any
given day. He was showing his displeasure for the press secretary when he referred to him as
“Secretary Tatad.” He usually called him “Kits” and the other ranking officials also by their
nicknames, even in his handwritten notes to them, to indicate that they were in good standing
with him. Note how he addressed Enrile in the early evening of September 22, 1972.)
I wrote the story without any help from, or consultation with, Tatad.
However, as a courtesy to him, and since I have had to use the xerox machine
of the Malacanang Press Office to be able to dish out copies of my finished
story to the Palace beat reporters from the other Manila newspapers, I
furnished Tatad a copy of my story so that he could use the same to brief the
other representatives from radio and television and the foreign media. It was
an SOP (standard operating procedure) which I had imposed on Tatad ever
since I began representing the Daily Express in the Palace beat. This same
SOP was followed for more than a year from the date of the imposition of martial
law. The spectacle of Tatad briefing newsmen on presidential stories I have
dished out to them in advance became the talk of the coffee shops.
I am quite certain that hardly had Ambassador Byroade stepped out of the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
presidential study room that fateful noonday of September 22 when he started
telling himself that the real reasons for Marcos’ resort to martial law were
definitely more tactical than philosophical and that the so-called reforms were
going to be more cosmetic than basic. But since martial law was going to be
good for the United States, it was good enough for Byroade. He was, after all,
an American diplomat sent by his government to protect American interests in
the Philippines, not a Filipino patriot about to starve fighting for the civil liber-
ties of the Filipinos.
The gusts blowing across the islands of a political-aflamed Philippine
archipelago in the late 60’s and early 70’s were not of such velocity as to
constitute a justification for the imposition of martial law.
However, President Marcos discerned the national fever burning over
certain aspects of national humiliation, cynicism and despair of a weary people.
Marcos observed and studied the emergence of an organized and militant
movement for change; he took note of the fact that the movement brought about
a loose coalition among intellectuals, professionals, small businessmen,
students, peasants, laborers and employees, and even elements heretofore
inactive in the political field, i.e. the seminarians, priests, nuns and Catholic
school students. Together they started questioning the injustices of the social
and political system. With increasing support from the elite of the two
major political parties and the influential media, the movement generated
nationwide support through massive demonstrations and teach-ins. But it was
clear that the movement never sought the destruction of democracy in the
country: they wished to preserve it as they sought to police, and protect their
ranks, from numerous infiltrators who were mostly military intelligence men in
mufti. A significant victory of the coalesced groups came during the elections
for delegates to the 1971 Constitutional Convention; about one-third of the
delegate seats were won by progressives and independents who later formed
a potent bloc to push through sweeping and fundamental structural changes in
the government and society.
The organized reform movement did not rest on its laurels (i.e. victory in
the election of Convention delegates). It attended to the much-needed
politicization of the people in democracy.
Of this political transformation taking place in the Philippines, Fr. Bruno
Hicks, an American Franciscan missionary deported later by the martial regime
who now lives in Stockton, wrote:
“I saw more and more Filipinos getting into the political arena. I saw simple
and conscientious peasants forming their own political groups, expressing
themselves, beginning to vote independently of their landlords and employers.”
Father Hicks then asks: “Could this have been the reason why martial law
was declared: because democracy was just beginning to work (and) the
grievances of the masses were finally getting organized, getting aired, bringing
pressure to bear on the political institutions?”
As Marcos took note of the “pressure” brought about by the reform
movement, he even sought to ride the crest of the new wave. Marcos had
become an apostle of change himself, but of a different hue and color.
I recall a number of occasions when the First Lady, Imelda, would
despairingly talk of how the new coalition of progressive and independent
elements seem to present a formidable threat to the plans of the First Family to
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
stay in power. Marcos was unperturbed; he had other things in mind.
Marcos started tossing his own theories and ideas on the burgeoning
movement for change during an informal session with some of his Cabinet
members following the accreditation in Malacanang of a newly-arrived
ambassador of a foreign country. Members of the Cabinet are usually invited
to such accreditation ceremonials, which usually take place at about 1 0 a.m. at
the Malacanang reception hall. After the accreditation ceremony, the President
sits down informally with members of his official family. On one such occasion,
a member of the Cabinet, as if on a cue from Marcos himself, opened up with
an observation that the “violent demonstrations” were being supported, nay
openly encouraged, by the media which, he added, has even used freedom of
the press as license to abuse the President and his wife. In any meeting of the
President with his subordinates, only Marcos may speak lengthily on anything;
the others may interrupt with only one or two short sentences, unless he has
an anecdote to relate that is calculated to make the President laugh. When the
President said “ahhhhh” which was his signal for anybody talking at the time to
shut up and give way to him, all eyes turned to the Chief Executive. True, he
stated, the confrontation started by the reformist groups with the government
was becoming dangerous, posing a threat not only to the party in power, but to
the entire Establishment. There is even a real possibility, Marcos declared, that
a new political party made up of young, ambitious men and women who have
succeeded in identifying themselves with the interests of the masses in
opposing foreign capital and the elitists, may replace the Nacionalista and
Liberal parties.
A Cabinet member, who has never been known for being tactful, boldly
asserted that the demands of the demonstrating groups focused exploitation of
the Philippines by American business interests and on the need to restrict the
United States on the use of its military bases in the country.
The Cabinet member had spoken more than two lines; he was not
supposed to do that. The President cut him off. And as if speaking with a
prepared script, Marcos then revealed that he has been assessing the possible
adverse results that the “parliament of the streets” might bring about in the
Philippines’ relations with the United States. The President pointed out that
there was a real possibility that the U.S. would get out of the Vietnam war,
thereby requiring greater protection for the U.S. naval and air bases in the
Philippines as insurance against probable expansion of Soviet power in Asia.
Marcos added that the approaching end of parity demanded a trade agreement
equally favorable to U.S. business interests which have just suffered setbacks
in the newly-handed down decisions of the Supreme Court. And Japan, which
is being urged by the United States to expand in Asia so that she can share in
the protection of the area from Soviet expansionism, needed favorable busi-
ness terms also in the Philippines. Marcos noted that the Senate had not seen
it fit to ratify the pending Philippines-Japan Treaty of Amity, Commerce and
Navigation.
Then the tactless Cabinet member became pertinent for Marcos’ purposes;
it was as if he himself was following a script prepared by whoever drafted the
President’s own script for the day. What we need then, Mr. President, is martial
law so that you can continue your good work for this nation; we need mar-
tied law to protect the two-party system; and we need it to protect the Republic
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
from the rebels. We also need it so that you can protect the U.S. bases, secure
U.S. investments and allow other foreign investors to help in the development
of this country.
Sometimes known as the “secretary for air pollution” because he would butt
in on any subject under discussion in any Cabinet meeting, this particular
Cabinet man was all of a sudden the darling of Mr. Marcos; he had performed
well — perhaps, according to the script.
However, Marcos played it cool and coy. The President said he would keep
the suggestions of the Cabinet members under advisement, and he would act
in the best interest of the Republic. But he has driven home his point; he had
delivered his message to the Cabinet, and the other people outside Malaca-
nang whom they would be calling the moment they stepped out of the Palace
gates. Marcos added as a parting shot that the so-called reform movement was
not strong enough; the demonstrators were not aggressive enough. He had
plans all by himself to exacerbate the revolutionary situation. When Marcos
had done so, he made his decision known also to Ambassador Byroade.
Verily, the myth is now closing down on Filipinos at home and abroad that
the declaration of martial law in the Philippines was caused in part by the failure
of American-style democracy to cope with the growing pains of development in
a country dominated by vested interests and oligarchs.
Marcos just did not prove equal to the increasing sophistication of the
Filipino electorate who, on realizing their frustrations and the frustrating acts of
Marcos, have had to take to the streets, organize the so-called “parliament of
the streets,” which the incumbent President immediately branded as rebellion.
Martial law, therefore, was more than just a vehicle for a power-grab,
confession or failure or lack of capacity, to handle the open bargaining process
so necessary to Philippine political and economic development.
In his first book, entitled Today’s Revolution; Democracy, Marcos recalled
an accusation that Filipinos could not make an honest revolution in 1896.* 13
Now Marcos wants his imposition of martial law known as a “democratic
revolution.” Is this an honest revolution? When Marcos first telegraphed his
message us early as 1 971 that there was a pressing need for a “democratic
revolution from the top,” as the Dictator would now want his despotic rule
known, his former Executive Secretary, Rafael M. Salas,* 14 found an occasion
to ridicule the President’s posture as a revolutionary by stating in an interview
with Quijano de Manila, pen name of former Free Press staff writer Nick Joa-
quin, thus: “How can Marcos call it a ‘democratic revolution’? Does he mean it
was not a working democracy before? Revolution means change; usually it
comes from below. If it’s going to be from above, the word is reform. The
terminology is unfortunate. Again I go back to my statement that morality is
necessary to make any form of reform credible to the people.” * 15
(* 13 . See page 93, Today's Revolution: Democracy, paper-bound edition.
* 14 . Salas is now an undersecretary in the United Nations, directly in charge of population
control program. The first time Salas visited Manila under the martial regime in July, 1 974, he was
assigned an armed forces major as “military aide” who was actually an intelligence officer who
reported directly to Marcos and Imelda on the movements and “local contacts” made by Salas.
* 15 . Aaia-Philippines Leader, issue of April, 1971 .)
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There was nothing in the Philippine situation that would have generated
panic or hysteria. Just a year before the imposition of martial law, the
prestigious Rand Corporation surveyed the Philippine situation on commission
from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Rand report
underscored among others the fact that:
1. “The political system appears to be stable and generally responsive to the
desire of most people.”
2. “The economy appears to be performing better than commonly thought and
is spread broadly across the country.”
3. “Crime is not a national problem. Violence and fear of violence are
concentrated in a few areas.”
4. “The HMB (dissident group) are not a serious threat to the government.”
The only emergency condition that existed on or about mid-1972 revolved
around the personal and political fortunes of President Marcos and his
ambitious and insatiable wife, Imelda. It was a fact at the time that the second
and last legally elective term of Marcos was barely one year away from an
ignominious end. Influential leaders of the two major political parties, including
ranking leaders of the President’s own Nationalista Party, were openly talking
about how Marcos and his wife would have to be made to answer to the people
and the courts of law and equity for the unabashed abuse of power, and
the rampant graft and corruption that pervaded the Marcos I and II
Administrations. The corruption of the Marcos Administrations even compelled
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to revise its profile on Marcos to include
therein an observation that Marcos was “incredibly corrupt,” having amassed
as of the year 1969 a total asset of cash and other holdings in the
Philippines and various foreign countries, including the United States and
Switzerland, to the tune of TWO BILLION ($2,000,000,000,000.00) DOLLARS.
At this time, Marcos was also faced with the personal dilemma of an Imelda
Marcos who decided to set in motion a process that would make herself a
candidate to succeed her husband as President of the Philippines. Imelda had
already been meddling in the exercise of the powers of the presidency,
including her unashamed use of public funds. Imelda as President and Marcos
the First Man? It was a grim prospect which challenged the chauvinism in Mar-
cos; a negation of his own decision that power cannot be allowed to slip from
his effective control as long as he was alive. Marcos then mustered enough
courage to put his foot down on Imelda’s ambition while they were cruising on
board the presidential yacht, RPS 777, around Manila Bay, in the latter part of
June, 1972. The quarrel became so violent that the First Lady scratched
Ferdinand on the face; Marcos slapped her so heavily on her beautiful face that
she fell to the floor. Later, Marcos announced that his wife had suffered a
miscarriage and blamed it all on the unfair criticisms on Mrs. Marcos by ele-
ments of the “sick society,” including his media critics.
It was also a time when Marcos felt that all the frustrations of his political
career was coming his way; there were the merciless criticisms by his political
opponents and even from his own party, the untrammeled and ever-increasing
crescendo of assaults on his integrity by the free-swinging Philippine news
media. To Marcos, all these constituted poisoned darts and arrows which he
could not evade — because he deserved them and more — simply because
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
there were democratic niceties and rules with which he had to abide in his
conduct of the affairs of state. Damn the legal niceties, damn democracy and
free speech, he thought. With only a year left in his second term presidency,
there certainly would be no time at all to even up scores with political
opponents, newspapermen and the allegedly abusive oligarchy. An entire
lifetime freed from the shackles of guarantees of civil liberties was needed;
Marcos must have his vengeance.
That was the emergency situation that faced Marcos in mid-1972; it was
very personal to him. Even from the single consideration that Marcos must
carve out a nice niche for himself in Philippine history, there was a pressing
emergency situation; the tightening noose of circumstances showed that,
unless Marcos took some drastic steps, the inevitable verdict of history
on Marcos, as of 1972, would be that he was nothing but a scoundrel.
Watergate is really peanuts, a mere drop in the bucket, compared to the
chicanery that Marcos indulged in upon his assumption of power in the
Philippines in 1965. At its worst, Watergate was a fumbling attempt at
espionage to insure an election campaign over-kill by President Nixon’s
campaign strategists and a subsequent attempt at cover-up. In the case of
Marcos of the Philippines, the regime is engaged in a series of cover-ups for
numerous cover-ups.
My own assessment that martial law was resorted to by President Marcos
as a means of perpetuating himself in power and covering up for his
malfeasance and nonfeasance during his corrupt and abusive I and II
presidency in Malacanang is borne out by various quarters.
From the dark confines of his solitary cell at Fort Bonifacio, the
headquarters of the Philippine Army, AFP, in Makati, Rizal, imprisoned Senator
Aquino, Jr. gave his own angry insight into the sanctimonious claim of Marcos
that he imposed martial law only as a means of saving the Republic from its
enemies.
Aquino declared:
“Mr. Marcos says he declared martial rule to establish a New Society. But
what he created is the oldest society recorded by history — a society of
absolute rule by one man who in various epochs was called a pharaoh, a shah,
an emperor, a king, a duce, a caudillo, a feuhrer, a chairman or a president.
“Mr. Marcos says a new Constitution has been overwhelmingly ratified by
the Filipino people in January, 1973. This new Constitution ordains a drastic
change from a presidential to a parliamentary form of government. But what we
have today is a worse centralized presidency, a totalitarian regime where
both legislative and executive powers have been merged under one man. We
have a parliamentary government without a parliament. Instead of moving
forward to parliamentary democracy, we moved backwards to the very
extremes of presidential authoritarianism.
“Mr. Marcos says he has checked, if not eliminated the privileges and the
rule of an entrenched oligarchy. Yes, the rule of the few has been eliminated.
It has been reduced to the rule of one.
“Mr. Marcos misses no stroke in his incessant flogging of the old society as
if he is a complete stranger to that old society, having come from outer space
on September 21 , 1 972.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
“Lest we forget:
“It was during his incumbency, as early as 1966, when documented rake
offs from public works contracts reached into the millions, when he encouraged
the proliferation of private armies and the smuggling by his political henchmen
of high-powered weapons with impunity, when 26 Muslim ‘Jabidah’
volunteers were murdered in cold blood in Corregidor, when our Republic
nearly got embroiled in a foreign adventure with a neighboring state to secure
a ‘power of attorney’ granted by the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu to Mr. Marcos.
“It was during his incumbency when our currency was debauched and
devalued by an unprecedented 58% as a result of wanton election spending
‘overkill’ in 1969. Mr. Marcos squandered almost P900 million to reelect himself
as per the findings of the Senate committee on finance. We are still hurting from
that disastrous devaluation.
“It was during his incumbency when despairing youth took to the streets to
denounce his abuses and misrule, when several idealistic young demonstrators
were mowed down in cold blood while some others were picked up during the
night by agents of the law and disappeared forever.
“It was during his incumbency when the prestige of the House of
Representatives hit rock bottom with the revelation of scandalous fund transfers
from Malacanang to finance and rig the elections of handpicked Marcos-type
Constitutional Convention delegates.
“It was during his incumbency that a Constitutional Convention was openly,
flagrantly and shamelessly subverted with fat ‘payola’ envelopes, triggering a
massive expos A of lurid pay-offs in the very precinct of Malacanang. And when
his Con-Con manipulations began to falter, Mr. Marcos declared
martial rule, jailed the independent and opposition leaders who opposed his
wishes in the Convention and rammed through a Marcos Constitution in record
time.
“It was during his incumbency when a few favored presidential cronies
cornered billions of loanable funds of government financing institutions while
the rest of the business community starved for capital, when the national
economy teetered on the rink of near-total collapse as a result of massive graft
and gross mismanagement and when, finally the Filipino lost his freedoms and
the flame of liberty was snuffed, x x x”
Chapter IV
A Dark Age Begins
Along dark night for the Philippines was what Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr.
perceived in the early dawn of September 23, 1972, as he was arrested by
martial law enforcers at the Manila Hilton.
The long dark night that descended on the Republic has now disgorged its
monstrous two-headed offspring in the dictatorship of Ferdinand E. Marcos
made conjugal by the consuming personal ambition of his No. 1 wife, Imelda
Romualdez-Marcos.
Marcos baptized the conjugal dictatorship as the “New Society,” and
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
alternately, as a regime of “constitutional authoritarianism” operating under the
aegis of martial law. But this is merely a resort to semantics. Martial law by any
name is dictatorship; it becomes a conjugal dictatorship when the ruler’s No. 1
wife not only enjoys the privileges, but also wields with greater gusto and
irresponsibility the powers, of the dictator.
Marcos made no bones about his role under the new order when he went
on the air at 7:30 p.m. on September 23,1972, to announce his martial law
proclamation, some 22 hours after he had given his military collaborators the
command to start arresting his political opponents and closing down the media
establishments. Several hours before the scheduled announcement of martial
law on the air, Marcos directed Press Secretary Francisco S. Tatad to rehearse
a broadcast voice that would have all the braggadocio and scary tone of an
advance barker of a conquering army. Veteran radio announcer Vero Perfecto
was originally tapped by the President to do it, but a jealous T atad ordered Vero
to “get lost.” Thus Tatad barked the Marcos edict through his nose:
“x x x it is imperative for the (undersigned) President of the
Philippines to assume greater and more effective control over the entire
Government, to have the broadest latitude and discretion in dealing with the
affairs of the nation, and to exercise extraordinary powers in my capacity as
commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the Philippines in order to enable
me to restore within the shortest possible time and thereafter to maintain the
stability of the nation and to safeguard the integrity and security of the
Philippines and to insure the tranquility of its inhabitants, by suppressing
lawlessness and all subversive, seditious, rebellious and insurrectionary
activities throughout the land, with all the resources and means at my
command, and by adopting such other measures as I may deem necessary
and expedient to take to contain and resolve the existing national emergency
and for the interest of the public:
"NOW, THEREFORE, I, Ferdinand E. Marcos, President of the Philippines,
by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution as Commander-in-
Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, do hereby proclaim that I shall
govern the nation and direct the operation of the entire Government, in-
cluding all its agencies and instrumentalities, in my capacity and shall exercise
all the powers and prerogatives appurtenant and incident to my position as such
Commander-in-Chief of all the armed forces of the Philippines, x x x” * 1
(* 1 . General Order No. 1, dated Sept 22, 1972.)
Invoking powers within the framework of his own edict, Marcos proceeded
to exercise all executive and legislative powers, lie issued General Orders to
the armed forces in his capacity as commander-in-chief and Letters of
Instructions to civil officials in his capacity as President. In the exercise of
legislative powers, Marcos promulgated Presidential Decrees containing the
vital resolutory portion stating that they “shall be part of the law of the land
unless ordered repealed or amended by me or by my duly authorized
representatives.”
Marcos also assumed judicial powers. However, realizing that the judicial
system was too intricate for him to be able to exercise judicial functions to the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
exclusion of the Supreme Court and other inferior courts, he permitted the
Judiciary to "continue to function in accordance with its present organization
and personnel, and shall try and decide in accordance with existing laws all
criminal and civil cases.” * z However, he specifically barred the Judiciary from
vital areas of judicial functions, notable among which was any case involving
the validity, legality or constitutionality of Proclamation No. 1081 itself
and "any rules, orders or acts issued, promulgated or performed” by him or his
duly authorized representatives. (* 2 . General Order No. 3, dated Sept. 22, 1972.)
In other words, there can be no challenges to the acts of martial law; Marcos
has made Marcos infallible.
Although the judiciary was allowed some degree of “independence” in
handling “non-political cases,” Marcos still exercised judicial powers directly
and indirectly; in the first method, through military commissions which he
created to try civilians and whose sentences he must First approve before they
can be carried out * 3 and in the second means, through his influence over
members of the Supreme Court * 4 and through his power, under the Palace-
dictated 1973 Constitution, to remove every member of the judiciary, from the
lowest to the highest, at will and even without cause. * 5
(* 3 . Presidential Decree No. 39, dated Nov. 7,1972, as amended by PD No. 566, dated
October 18, 1974.
* 4 . See Chapter on “Spineless Judiciary Legitimizes a Pretender.”
*5. Articles XVI, Sections 9 and 10, 1973 Constitution. See also Letter of
Instructions No. 1 1.)
By his assumption of all powers of government unto himself, Marcos
became an absolute dictator, denying participation by the people, through their
elected representatives, on matters that shape their life and their very
livelihood. Thus, subject to no effective checks or balances and freed from any
limitation on his tenure, Marcos did not have to bother about constitution-
al rights or civil liberties of the people.
Marcos has no intention of relinquishing the absolute rule he has imposed
in the Philippines. He will continue his present course of action for as long as
he is alive and in control of an imperial dynasty that he is now so cautiously
setting up in the Philippines under the guise of a “smiling martial law.” The
whole plot of Marcos is to rule in Malacanang long enough for him to be able to
prepare his son, Ferdinand, Jr., to take over as the next ruler, and from there
on start a royal hereditary succession to the imperial throne; Imelda is a standby
heir and is programmed to act as queen regent for ‘Bongbong.” Dictator-
President Marcos misses no opportunity, however, to insist that the painful
decision he had made to place the country under martial law to “save the
Republic” and solve, through a government by martial law, the nation’s abiding
and persistent political, economic and social problems.
The President thereby has attempted to weave a myth that an
underdeveloped nation, like the Philippines, must sacrifice civil liberties and
political rights for rapid economic growth.
In another breath, however, he would attempt to hold out false hopes by
making a concessionary statement that martial law was never conceived as a
permanent fixture in Philippine polity, although he would continue to impose it
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
beyond the simple need of restoring order, to meet the other and even more
important imperative of reforming society.
When I defected from the dictatorship in the Philippines, with a warning
that Marcos was setting up an imperial dynasty in his country, I was greeted
with skepticism, even derision by some, that I was just an embittered and
disenchanted former camp follower crying wolf.
Of course, I knew whereof I was speaking, but I was not prepared — and
neither am I now — to beg anybody to believe me. I always believe that the
event will tell in its hour. One such event has already materialized in the first
concrete confirmation by deed on the intent of President Marcos to set up an
imperial dynasty in the Philippines.
This is how the “Associated Press” reported it: * 6
President Ferdinand E. Marcos’ wife, Imelda, yesterday took her first
political post, as governor of Metropolitan Manila, a new government unit
with 4.5 million residents.
The position will give her political exposure second only to her husband
and increase the possibilities of her succeeding him in the presidency.
Marcos, who rules by decree under martial law, swore in his wife after
she made a brief acceptance speech broadcast on all major television and
radio stations.
Six days ago, the President rejected a movement to draft Mrs. Marcos
to head the new government, which integrates 17 municipalities. Mayors
and prominent businessmen had asked her to head the area government
because they said it needed a figure of national stature.
Mrs. Marcos told the audience of politicians at the ceremony in the
presidential palace, “Not a single one among us can afford to beg off and
just watch the metropolis decay and die. It is for this reason that I have
accepted, in spite of many involvements with my national projects and
international commitments this year and next.”
The move was strongly supported by newspapers either controlled or
edited by Mrs. Marcos’ younger brother, Benjamin Romualdez, governor of
Leyte province, and by a cousin, E. P. Romualdez. * 7
Before his wife spoke, Marcos signed the decree creating the
Metropolitan Manila Commission for the Greater Manila Area.
(*6. “Political Job: Big Step for Mrs. Marcos,” page 17, San Francisco Chronicle,
Nov. 7, 1975.
*7. Enrique “Pocholo” Romualdez is a nephew of Mrs. Marcos,
his father being a first cousin of Imelda.)
Even this early, Marcos has already seen fit to hold out Imelda as his would-
be successor, just in case he is incapacitated to discharge his dictatorial duties
while his only son by Imelda is yet too young to assume the powers of
government.
With Imelda’s new position as gobernadora (governor) of the Greater
Manila Area, the Philippine situation graduates from the realm of speculation.
It is an emerging fact that in the reasonably near future, Marcos’ assumption of
a crown and scepter would become a clear and definite reality.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
What is being fashioned out in Manila now is a distinctive brand of Filipino
dictatorship concocted by the self-assumed royal rulers Ferdinand and Imelda
and enforced by naive military officers who have been misled by the Marcoses
into believing that they are going to be heroic instruments for the rejuve-
nation of democracy, Philippine style, and as enforcers of martial law, the
vehicle to solve the nation’s pressing problems.
A greater proof of Marcos’ irreversible plunge towards the establishment of
a royal dictatorship in the Philippines is his resort to the ancient and historic
“barangay” system of government of the early Filipinos. When Marcos made
the resuscitation of the “barangay" concept of government the major func-
tion of his New Society, parlaying it as the ancient Filipino system of
participatory democracy, he betrayed his innermost thoughts about his plans to
set up an imperial dynasty and rule for life in the manner of royalty.
The first time Marcos made use of the “barangay” concept of government
in January, 1 973, “to sound out the people” on his martial law and on the newly-
drafted Constitution, he immediately made the system work as in the days of
yore. He allowed the people to respond to the questions he had drafted with
answers he wanted. These days Marcos talks in glowing terms on the modern
meaning of the “barangay” concept of government, saying it is a system where
the people have full participation in government; obviously, full participation in
what he wants them to do.
Any student of Philippine history would easily be able to declare that, while
the “barangay” system was really the original unit of government of the ancient
Filipinos, it was not the ideal form of government that Marcos now wants it to
appear. It was far from being a democracy.
The “barangay” system was actually a society of unequal castes; and this
is the same kind of a society which Marcos is developing in the Philippines with
some refinements. This is Imelda’s cup of tea, too, for it will sustain her desire
to be known as one who sprung from the noblesse oblige, not from very poor
beginning as traced by Carmen Navarro-Pedrosa. * 8
(*8. “The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos,” by Carmen Navarro-Pedrosa.)
Imelda’s hobnobbing with royalties abroad, her diplomatic missions which
really should be the function of Secretary of Foreign Affairs Carlos P. Romulo,
her Extravagant foreign trips and jet-set parties in the Philippines and
elsewhere are all scandalous expressions of a hurried desire to institutionalize
as soon as possible the regime of a royal family, with the' distinct element of
the female half exercising equal powers with the male counterpart.
It will not be long when voluminous literature about a Philippine “Camelot”
that existed during pre-Spanish times would be flooding the country’s schools
and the foreign outposts of the Philippines. This will be an initial soft-sell to
explain the “barangay” authoritarian rule of Ferdinand and Imelda in Mani-
la; it will be the official cover for the Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and
Imelda.
The “barangay” program of government restructuring which Marcos is
slowly but surely executing follows the usual caste divisions among the ancient
Filipinos. Then as now, there are five castes, namely: 1) the royalty, known as
the lakan (king or queen), 2) the warrior or datu class, 3) the religious leaders,
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
4) the freemen, and 5) the slaves.
The royalty is, of course, to be made up of King Ferdinand and Queen
Imelda; lakan is an ancient title which does not have a place for a meddling
wife. Imelda definitely covets the title and position of Ferdinand. However, her
ambitions also calls for barring any of the llocanos in the defense establish-
ment, including Secretary of National Defense Juan Ponce Enrile, Jr., from ever
gaining any slot in the line of succession to the presidency, and for propping up
her favorite brother, Kokoy, as one of the important Palace guards — against
the llocanos.
Occupying a pivotal position next in importance only to the royal class is
the “warrior group” as laid out in the Marcos hierarchical scheme. Known as the
“mandirigma” in ancient times, this class is now made up of the entire public
armed forces of the Philippines, the principal enforcers of the martial
law edict.
The exact role of the military in the conjugal dictatorial setup of things in
the New Society was succinctly spelled out by Marcos when he announced the
imposition of martial law on September 23,1973. He declared: “The
proclamation of martial law is not a military takeover. I, as your duly elected
President of the Republic, use this power implemented by the military
authorities ...”
However, if one looks at the behavior of the members of the armed forces,
he cannot but come to the conclusion that the AFP people are behaving like
they were a conquering army.
While Marcos tolerates — or seems afraid to discipline — AFP members
who indulge in irresponsible acts of spoliation, he had taken definite steps to
insure that the military would have no higher political ambitions beyond its
warrior class. Nevertheless, Marcos has awarded loyal officers and units
with defined territorial jurisdictions to administer — and plunder — when they
are not engaged in any action for the preservation of the royalty.
Slightly higher in esteem by Dictator Marcos, but still in the level of the
“warrior” class, is the group of bodyguards of the royalty. In the modem
Philippines under the conjugal dictatorship, it is designated as the Presidential
Security Command, whose chief is Major General Fabian Crisologo-Ver. The
main function of the PSC, as its name connotes, is securing the per-
son of the President and his family. However, one of its major tasks is to serve
as a “watchdog” on the armed forces, notably the ranking command officers
like Major General Fidel V. Ramos, chief of the Philippine Constabulary; and
the young colonels and majors who might be eyeing the jobs of their superior
officers.
The mere existence of the Palace security command serves as a constant
reminder to all other armed forces units and their commanders that, even under
a martial regime where the military is supposed to be supreme, they are not
supposed to aspire to anything beyond serving the interests of the commander-
in-chief.
The third ranking group in the emerging Philippine system is the class of
“imams” or high priests, although this caste is not allowed the privilege of
enjoying worldly things. In ancient days, the “imams” were charged with the
responsibility of regularly calling upon the deity to preserve the good health of
the royal family.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The “freemen”, under the Marcos program of a royal empire, are his
relatives in both sides of the conjugal dictatorship, his cronies and front men in
the reallocation of the country’s public and private resources unto the ruling
clique. Members of this group were known in early times as the maharlika or
timawa, or free men who were in the good graces of the king and queen.
The fifth and lowest class under the datu system of unequal castes is
known as the alipin, or slaves. This group now constitutes the rest of the Filipino
people who belong to none of the four higher castes from the royalty down.
Under present conditions, the people who fit into the least of the castes are
divided, as in ancient times, into two classes of still descending importance.
They are: 1) aliping namamahay or slaves without fetters who must work the
lands and enterprises of the higher castes, pay taxes and carry out the
directives flowing from the seat of power as they work for their own livelihood,
and, if they are lucky, to have some of their men recruited into the warrior
class; and 2) aliping saguiguilid, or second-class slaves, which correspond
under present conditions to the political prisoners. The two kinds of slaves are
the very reasons for the conversion of the entire Philippines into a huge gulag
or concentration camp.
The principle under which the slaves have to work the lands and properties,
including the various enterprises, of the royalty and the freemen or timawas is
that everything in the country is owned by the King and the Queen, although
both King and Queen prefer to make the people understand that what they have
all belong to the State.
The most nebulous and unidentifiable of the castes as of this time is that
which is made up of the imams. There are strong doubts right now whether the
various religious groups in the Philippines, i.e., Catholics, Protestants or
Muslims, would be willing to serve more than the spiritual needs of Marcos. Al-
though the religious would occupy a distinct place in the caste system being
fashioned out by Dictator Marcos, they find the plan so disgustingly violative of
the elementary freedoms of their flock. As a matter of fact, the archbishop of
Manila, Msgr. Jaime Sin, has triggered an ecumenical movement directly op-
posed to the worldly needs of Ferdinand and Imelda; the archbishop has
echoed the ecumenical demand that Marcos commit suicide by giving up his
dictatorial powers.
Sin has proven to be a greater pain in the neck for Marcos than his
immediate predecessor in the Manila archdiocese, the late Rufino Cardinal
Santos.
An exasperated President Marcos, talking one day to Imelda and some
members of the Cabinet, even bitterly observed that it seems that “only the
Aglipayans are being good to us.” Presidential Assistant Jacobo C. Clave, a
preacher in his own right, stated that the Methodists are also good to the
administrators of the New Society. “Oh, yes, Jake, they go to worship at the
Cosmopolitan Church * 9 where Senator (Jovito) Salonga preaches more
regularly than you do on Sundays,” the Dictator quipped, unable to conceal his
irritation.
(*9. Located along Taft Avenue in front of the Phil. General Hospital.)
President Marcos is not given to making idle pronouncements; his
appreciation of the “support” of the Aglipayan church for martial law and his
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
displeasure on the behavior of the majority religious sects were portentous of
ideas lurking in the dark recesses of his mind. He had on several occasions
actually thought aloud that the New Society might just duplicate the feat of the
first Philippine Republic by breaking away from Rome and designate the
Philippine Independent Church (Aglipayan) as the official imam of the New
Society’s imperial dynasty. The Marcoses are descended from the founders of
the Aglipayan church in the Philippines. The first Supreme Bishop, the Obispo
Maximo, of the Philippine Independent Church was Bishop Gregorio Aglipay,
after whom the nationalistic church was named.
Aglipay shot to national prominence in the wake of demands within the
leadership of the Revolutionary Government in 1 899 for the Filipinization of the
Catholic Church. Appointed Military Vicar General of the Revolution by
President Emilio Aguinaldo on October 20,1899, Aglipay urged the Filipino
clergy at the time to unite and ask the Pope to appoint Filipinos in all
church positions from the archbishop down to the last parish priest. Aglipay
agreed with and wholeheartedly endorsed a plan of Apolinario Mabini, the
brains of the Malolos Congress, for the organization of a church administered
by Filipinos. It was not until July, 1901, however, when a radical reformist,
Isabelo de los Reyes, returned to the Philippines from Rome and founded the
Iglesia Filipina Independiente, marking officially the beginning of the schism
with Rome. Aglipay accepted the position of Supreme Bishop of the new
Church.
Aglipay ventured in politics during the first Commonwealth elections in
1935 by himself running for the post of President as head of the Republican
party against Manuel L. Quezon, the standard bearer of the Nacionalista-
Consolidado. Gen. Aguinaldo was the third contender for President, carrying
the banner of the Popular Front. Mariano Marcos, father of Marcos
was a candidate of Aglipay against Julio Nalundasan, the candidate of Quezon,
in congressional elections that culminated in the murder of Nalundasan and the
subsequent conviction of Ferdinand Marcos for that murder by a trial court.
The thoughts and ideas of Marcos about the Aglipayan church has some
historical moorings, therefore. Considering the weakness he and Imelda are
now showing for things of royal hue and color, a break with Rome and other
religious denominations to a degree less than the schism provoked by
Aglipay may not be far-fetched. After all, the thinking of Ferdinand and Imelda
show their heavy penchant for adopting the ways of British royalty which they
want to be the model for their own royal reign in the Philippines. Specifically,
Marcos, for his part, has in mind King Henry VIII who made his own break with
Rome to be able to marry Queen Anne Boleyn.
Four of the major “reform” measures programmed by Marcos for his New
Society were of such delicate nature as to offend the finer sensibilities of the
religious, specifically the Catholic Church. These are: 1) legalization of
gambling, 2) imposition of taxes on revenue-raising properties and institutions
owned by religious organizations, 3) legalization of divorce, and 4) legali-
zation of abortion.
Marcos has already put the first two into the statute books, the first by
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
decree that paved the way for the launching of a floating casino at Manila Bay,
and the second through the martial law Constitution, although he has
suspended its implementation and is holding it as a Sword of Damocles on the
Catholic church.
The more serious thing, legalization of divorce, which could bring the
Catolico cerrados (dyed-in-the-wool Catholics) up in arms against Marcos is
now being seriously considered by the male half of the conjugal dictatorship. A
draft of the Divorce Decree was ordered by the President to be prepared and
submitted to him as early as 1973.
Now, the one thing that one must bear in mind in studying the plan of
Marcos to legalize divorce in the Philippines is that Dictator-President has never
done anything in his life that is not calculated or designed to benefit himself first
politically and personally. What benefit, politically or personally, would a divorce
decree bring unto King Ferdinand? One can always hark back to the days when
Marcos was repeatedly promising actress Dovie Beams * 10 that he will divorce
Imelda and make the Hollywood lass the first American First Lady of the Philip-
pines. Only this time (when divorce becomes legal), Miss Beams may not be
the new First Lady at all.
(*10. See Chapter on “The Loves of Marcos.)
The installation of a new First Lady in Malacanang, whether Imelda is still
alive or not, is not inconceivable at all. After making that cowardly decision to
impose martial law, Marcos will no longer surprise anybody, if he does away
with Imelda — perhaps, in the dead of night.
Stealing into the night is a forte of King Ferdinand. Aided, abetted and
prodded this time by the most ambitious First Lady, Imelda, the Philippines has
ever had, Marcos was like a thief in the night as he stole into the stage of history
to plunder the freedom and patrimony of the Filipino people.
The man from Batac was so unlike the dearly beloved President Ramon F.
Magsaysay who illumined the darkened Philippine skies as he burned so fast
and so briefly as a bright shooting star — and was no more after a brief euphoria
given the Filipinos.
The night holds a thousand evil plots for Marcos. He was born, by his own
admission, on a dark moonless night on September 11, 1917.
It was on a dark night in 1 935, as established by a Philippine trial court, that
then young Ferdinand, using a rifle stolen from the armory of the University of
the Philippines, gunned down Nalundasan who had just won an overwhelming
election victory for the second time in a congressional election in llocos Norte
against Mariano Marcos, father of Ferdinand. It was on a dark night on
September 21, 1972, that Marcos extinguished the light of freedom in Asia’s
remaining bastion of democracy by using the guns of martial law to cow and
oppress his countrymen.
It was also on a dark night in humid Washington, D.C. where Marcos
brazenly sought to extend the dirty and ugly hands of his martial rule in the
Philippines to prevent a witness, with an offer of a $50, 000. 00-bribe, from
talking before a committee of the House of Representatives of the U.S.
Congress the lurid details of his own Watergate-style scandal in the Philippines.
It was a daring attempt by a tinhorn Asian dictator to tamper with sacred and
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
hallowed American institutions.
On those dark nights of September 1 972 and June 1 6,1 975, Marcos sought
alternately to insure and protect a lifetime of ambition and planning and
execution to install himself as a new smiling and ascetic dictator of an imperial
dynasty-in-the-making in Southeast Asia.
And now — at least temporarily — Marcos holds sway in the seat of power
which he had violently grabbed with his spectacular No. 1 wife, Imelda, over
the lives and fortunes of 45 million Filipinos. Their court is in the City of Manila
and their headquarters is Malacanang.
Together, this powerful duumvirate exercise unchallenged power as they
bleed and rule their people. As they make the Philippines endure what is
probably the worst dictatorship Asia has known, Ferdinand and Imelda make
laws at will, frighten masses of people into abject submission, contemptuously
and callously imprison thousands who oppose them. They even prescribe the
terms of intimate behavior and set every rule for living and speaking and writing
— except for themselves and the privileged members of the ruling clique, the
lesser lights.
When I appeared before the Fraser committee on June 17, 1975, in
Washington, D.C., I underscored the following points on the role of the First
Lady, Imelda, in what is now vulgarly known as the conjugal dictatorship
established by the most powerful ruling duumvirate ever to grace the map of
Southeast Asia:
IV. GOODBYE, DEMOCRACY
Having been provided with the final excuse, or what he prefers to call
as a “final sign” from Heaven, President Marcos delivered the coup de grace
to democracy in the Philippines. He moved for stability.
1) The first thing Mr. Marcos did was to order the closure of the unwary
and unresisting media establishments (newspapers, radio and television
stations). However, he immediately re-opened his own Philippines Daily
Express and the “Kanlaon Broadcasting System” in order to disseminate his
martial law proclamations.
2) Then, in accordance with a prepared order of battle, his troops fanned
out all over the country to arrest and detain his political opponents, business
rivals, militant student and labor leaders, critical newspapermen, columnists
and radio commentators.
3) In the guise of sparing no one, the son of Mr. Marcos’ political
benefactor, Rep. Roque S. Ablan, Jr., was arrested and placed in a military
stockade, but only because the hapless solon was picked out as “the
example” by Mrs. Marcos and her equally vindictive brother, Gov.
Romualdez.
4) President Marcos signed Letters of Sequestration (unpublished) for
the seizure of the properties of his critics and political opponents, and
business rivals, on the pretense that these properties were used as
“instruments of subversion.” The announced objective was to prevent these
people from ever utilizing again their facilities to fight the government.
Most of the seized estate and properties have been taken over for free,
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
or bought for unconscionably low prices, by cronies of the President and his
brothers-in-law.
5) Licensing commanding generals and regional and provincial military
commanders to exercise within their respective jurisdiction powers which
were heretofore exercised by civil authorities. A number of generals control
the flourishing smuggling in of luxury goods from abroad and smuggling out
of premium export products, e.g. sugar, copra, lumber, cement, etc.
V. DICTATOR FOR LIFE
Having delivered the fatal blow against democracy and having
consolidated his martial regime, President Marcos then took further steps to
insure his authoritarian rule for life.
1) He retained all members of his Cabinet, and in cases where he had
quarreling officials in one department, he split the said department to
accommodate and/or calm down the protagonists.
Even at this stage of martial law, Mr. Marcos cannot afford to dismiss or
displease members of his Cabinet, most of whom are either incompetent or
aging, without running the risk of being exposed by them on numerous
anomalous government transactions that plague the martial regime and the
previous constitutional Marcos I and II administrations.
2) Bribery, intimidation and coercion of the members of the
Constitutional Convention to force them to approve the final draft of a
proposed New Constitution which installed Mr. Marcos as a dictator for life.
3) Staging of a mock referendum from Jan. 10 to 15, 1973, by whose
fabricated results he proclaimed that the people have voted to ratify the New
Constitution.
4) Calling of other referendums as often as he wanted to in order to
show his political opponents at home and the outside world, particularly the
United States government and press, that his continuing martial regime had
the clear mandate of the people.
5) Launching by his Department of Public Information of a program,
dubbed as “Oplan Mystique”, which set off the process of “deification” of
Marcos the President. The central theme is the creation of an aura of
mysticism around the person of Mr. Marcos.
6) Maintaining a tight grip on the country’s economy by making sure that
all major business transactions or the formation of new and big corporations
carry his stamp of approval, or that they are undertaken with the
participation of his front men, in-laws and cronies.
7) Suspension by the President for one year of a provision of the
Constitution on the expiration of the so-called Parity Rights for American
citizens by July 3, 1974, in order to curry favor with American big business
whose home offices in the United States Mr. Marcos expects to turn in
favorable reports on the martial regime to the State Department.
8) Appointment by the President of every provincial governor, city
mayor, municipal mayor, provincial board member and city and municipal
councilors when the term of the present incumbents expire on December
31, 1975.
9) President Marcos plans to sanitize his authoritarian regime by making
a hollow gesture, perhaps in 1 976 or 1 977, of lifting martial law, but actually
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
retaining the restrictions adopted when martial law was imposed. His plan
is to issue a presidential decree on the “Internal Security Act.”
10) By terrorizing the personnel of the entire civil arm of government,
including members of the judiciary on the local government level, by
requiring them to submit their courtesy resignations under Letters of
Instructions Nos. 1 1 and 1 4. Then, those who are from time to time deemed
“notoriously undesirable” are either by direct action of the President, or upon
recommendation of their immediate superiors and with the approval of the
President, notified that their resignations have been accepted.
11) The Supreme Court of the land is subjected to a different brand of
intimidation by the martial regime. Whenever a suit is elevated to the high
court challenging the martial regime’s legality or any acts of Mr. Marcos, the
Supreme Court is gently reminded, either in speeches of the President or
press releases issued by the information office that a rebuff by the judiciary
of the martial regime could compel the President to organize a revolutionary
government. Justices of the high court always get the message loud and
clear that they are being told they could lose their jobs at any time.
1 2) Continuing muzzling of the press. The only kind of freedom available
to the Philippine press at this time is freedom to sing praises to the
President, the First Lady and their anointed followers, what with ownership
of media confined to the President’s front men, cronies and brother-in-law
Romualdez.
When your humble witness was still chairman of the Media Advisory
Council, I stood as a fragile shield for the media workers against the arrogant
interference of the department of public information and the military. I could
do it then because I could always state that “the President will hear about
this.”
13) Expansion of the manpower strength of the armed forces from the
pre-martial law complement of 65,000 to 270,000 by the end of 1976.
14) Increase of the salaries and allowances of the armed forces
personnel by 150 percent over the pre-martial law scale, while the civil
servants are grudgingly given a P50.00 ($7.15) cost-of-living allowance per
month.
15) A tight control on the right of the workers to strike, thus maintaining
workers in the private sector in their pre-martial law minimum daily wage of
P8. 00 ($1.15).
16) Expansion of the corps of Palace guards from its pre-martial law
strength of just a battalion (Presidential Guard Battalion) to a full-sized
Presidential Security Command. The PSC is composed of a battalion of
Constabulary troops, a Philippine army battalion, a marine battalion, an air
force battalion and a so-called security unit composed of plainclothesmen.
The commander of the Presidential Security Command is also
the chief of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) which set
up a national secret police.
17) Behind the false facade of a so-called “smiling martial law,” there
lies a ruthless nature of the authoritarian ruler which cannot be easily
concealed. Mr. Marcos displayed an example of his ruthlessness when, on
one occasion when he wanted to still an incipient opposition by members of
the “suspended” Congress to his regime, he amended a sentence of life
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
imprisonment imposed on a Chinese opium dealer to death by a firing
squad.
18) Restrictions on travel abroad by Filipinos, especially those who
could talk or write against the regime.
19) Final abolition by decree of the bicameral Congress, suspended
since September 23,1972, by Mr. Marcos’ proclamation of martial law. He
effected the dissolution of Congress by his proclamation that the New
Constitution, which ushered in a parliamentary form of government, has
been ratified by the Filipino people in a mock referendum.
20) Refusal of Mr. Marcos to call the “interim National Assembly” as
provided for under Article XVII of the New Constitution.
XXX
CONJUGAL XI. THE DICTATORSHIP
A dictatorship as it is, the authoritarian regime of President Marcos has
become more oppressive and corrupt in view of the unmitigated meddling
by his wife who has turned the martial rule into an unashamed conjugal
dictatorship.
1) The First Lady dips her fingers into the public till with greater ease
than the President himself. All the extravagant trips of the First Lady and her
jet set parties in Malacanang and in their luxurious Leyte rest area are
financed with funds drawn not only from the President’s budget, but also
from other executive departments of the government.
2) The First Lady has her own office in Malacanang located right next
to the Presidential Studv Room, known as the “Music Room” where she
receives her callers. It is in this room where she summons to appear before
her Cabinet members, heads of financing institutions, leaders of the
business community and other leading financial figures whenever she wants
her own projects implemented by them, or whenever she wants huge
contributions to her many impact projects, most of which duplicate those
officially undertaken by government agencies.
3) Like Evita Peron, her idol, the Philippines’ First Lady has established
a foundation to which funds may be contributed for every major project. All
the projects she has undertaken, or plans to undertake are explained in a
pamphlet, called “The Compassionate Society.” It sounds like a loose
translation of Evita Peron’s “La Razon de mi Vida,” or “My Mission in Life.”
4) The decision-making power and such other powers of the President
as appointment-making are shared by Mr. Marcos and Mrs. Marcos.
The First Lady scrutinizes and exercises veto power over appointments
and major decisions of the President. Before an appointment is proposed or
submitted to the President for his signature, the official in charge of the
preparation of the appointment papers makes sure that that particular
appointment is “cleared” by the First Lady; otherwise, the First Lady’s light
of smile will not shine on the man’s face for several days or weeks or that
the appointee will suffer harassment from the First Lady s Blue Ladies.”
The appointment in 1 969 of the incumbent Secretary of Information was
forced on the President by the First Lady and her brother, Gov. Romualdez.
That’s the reason when, on one occasion the First Lady tried to agitate for
the removal of the information secretary because the poor Cabinet man
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
could not stop the adverse publicity against the First Lady in the international
press, the President shot back: “I have always known his (the Cabinet
man’s) incompetence, but you recommended him to me!”
XXX
It was fairly evident from the time Marcos assumed the presidency of the
Philippines for the first term beginning December 30,1965, that Imelda would
not be stopped from sharing powers with the country’s chief executive in what
would be known as the conjugal presidency. It has ripened into a conjugal
dictatorship under martial law.
Imelda herself encouraged talks about her unwarranted meddling in the
exercise of the powers of the presidency. Celso G. Cabrera, former editor of
the defunct Manila Chronicle where he used to write a weekly column, titled
“Inside Malacanang,” once wrote a Sunday piece on Imelda sharing powers
with her husband, and making a forecast that the Marcos-lmelda rule in
Malacanang would approximate the romantic Joint Reign of Ferdinand and
Isabella of Spain. Instead of expressing resentment over the article — as
Cabrera feared — Mrs. Marcos even gave the editor a personal telephone call,
thanking him for the write-up and informing him that she was sending him a
new set of world history books to help the journalist dig up some historical basis
for the forthcoming joint rule of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. Imelda noted
that Cabrera had written the article in a light vein. The First Lady suggested that
the Chronicle editor might try a series of columns in more serious tones; she
recommended that parallels in the lives of Imelda, Eva Braun-Hitler and Evita
Peron be traced and publicized by Cabrera. “But Eva Braun and Evita Peron
were women of loose morals, and they both suffered terrible deaths, Mrs.
Marcos!” Cabrera protested. But Cabrera kept writing about Imelda in a light
vein, not in the serious tones that Imelda wanted him to do.
The heavy article came very much later from the pen of a veteran
Malacanang reporter, Vicente F. Barranco, and it was published in the Weekly
Examiner, which is published and edited by ex-Free Press staff writer Leon O.
Ty. Barranco criticized Mrs. Marcos for unwarranted meddling in affairs of state
which the Constitution specifies that only her husband, President Marcos, can
undertake.
Other First Ladies before Imelda were complimented by Barranco’s article
for preserving the honor and dignity of the Office of the President. Those he
mentioned were Mrs. Teodora Agoncillo-Aguinaldo, wife of President Emilio
Aguinaldo; Mrs. Aurora Aragon Quezon, wife of President Quezon; Mrs.
Paciencia Laurel, wife of wartime President Jose P. Laurel, Sr.; Mrs.
Esperanza Osmena, wife of President Sergio Osmena, Sr.; Mrs. Trinidad L.
Roxas, wife of President Manuel A. Roxas; Victoria Quirino-Gonzales, daughter
of President Elpidio Quirino; Mrs. Luz B. Magsaysay, wife of President
Magsaysay; Mrs Leonila Garcia, wife of President Carlos P. Garcia; and Mrs.
Eva Macapagal, wife of President Macapagal.
From the very beginning of his presidency, Marcos really seemed so
pathetically helpless in enjoining Imelda from poking her nose into the affairs of
state; he was just completely unable to stop her from sauntering outside the
confines of the bedroom. Marcos is not only helpless in stopping Imelda’s
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
dogged determination to share the powers of the presidency, and now the
dictatorship, with him. There have been instances when Marcos has had to
make important policy decisions and take official actions just to please
Imelda.* 11
(*11. Marcos acknowledged privately to the late Don Eugenio Lopez, Sr. that he was goaded
by Imelda into declaring war against the Lopezes in 1 971 because she had caught him philandering
and the only way he could appease her was to yield to her demands at the time, which happened
to be her desire to crack down on the Lopez empire.)
Imelda had neither the financial security nor the respect accorded other
First Ladies before her when she ascended the pedestal of power together with
Marcos. However, everyone concedes that Marcos could not have achieved
his goal of ascending to the presidency of his country merely by his own
masculine devices. Imelda was Marcos’ No. 1 king-maker; this is one important
consideration that Imelda became so important as to occupy a shared rule-
making not made available to any First Lady before. Marcos does not lack
masculinity; as a matter of fact, he has too much of it that he has had to yield
masculine powers to Imelda. One must attribute the successes of Imelda in
bringing up the conjugal dictatorship to her own wiles. She knew what she
wanted in life, and step by step, she had her dream realized. Imelda came out
of obscurity and penury from the sleeping barrio of Olot in Tolosa, Leyte. While
working as a clerk in the Central Bank of the Philippines, she became the
personal beauty queen of the late Manila Mayor Arsenio H. Lacson, an event
that gave clear causes for tongues to wag about the Cassanova adventures of
the colorful mayor. She changed from a barrio lass, with almost nothing to wear
until she was adopted by the more affluent members of the Romualdez clan, to
a lady-dictator, one of the world’s richest women, a multi-billionaire, with the
most elaborate wardrobe in the world.
At about the time that Imelda was plunging herself deeply Into the conjugal
presidency in the late 60’s, a box office movie hit, “Anne of a Thousand Days,”
was on a roadshow in Manila. The movie gave Marcos and the other aspiring
presidential timbers in the country a message to think about. It was what
Cardinal Wolsey quipped when warned by alarmed Palace functionaries that
Queen Anne Boleyn was getting to be too powerful to the point she might edge
out all other aspirants to the throne of King Henry. “Nonsense, power does not
lie between the legs of a woman,” declared the cardinal.
“Yes, but Marcos is putting power between Imelda’s legs and abdicating
his historical role,” chorused the senators during a lull in their sessions. This
particular incident was related to me by Antonio Zumel long before martial law
was declared.
The trend set by Imelda of sharing powers with her husband caught on
down the level of local governments and even in Congress to dramatize the
establishment of small dynasties of politicians in the provinces. Congressman
Floro Crisologo, of llocos Sur, made his wife, Carmen, governor of his province.
Then Congressman Tito M. Dupaya, of Cagayan province, followed suit by
installing his wife, Teresa, to the premier office in Cagayan. Governor of
Batanes province Jorge Abad made his wife the congressperson for the
province. There were also progressive trends towards making the wives
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
succeed their husbands in political offices as in the cases of Mrs. Josefina Bel-
monte-Duran who got elected to the congressional district of Albay upon the
demise of Congressman Pio Duran, and of Congressperson Magnolia
Wellborn-Antonino, daughter of an American schoolteacher, winning a
senatorial seat after substituting for her husband, Senator Gaudencio E.
Antonino, who died in a helicopter crash the day before the elections in
November, 1971.
But the biggest dynasty in the Philippines is still that of the Marcos-lmelda
tandem. A rare dispatch by the “Associated Press ’’from Manila tells a
capsulized story, to wit:
IMELDA MARCOS MANILA GOVERNOR - ALL IN THE FAMILY’ * 12
MANILA — For Imelda Romualdez Marcos, wife of the Philippines martial-law
president, becoming governor of the new integrated municipal government of
the 4.5 million inhabitants of metropolitan Manila is “all in the family.”
(* 12 . The news story was published by the San Francisco Examiner on November 27, 1975,
under the by-line of Arnold Zeitlin, AP Manila bureau chief.)
She becomes the third in the Marcos-Romualdez family circle to serve as
a governor here.
Other members of the families are scattered prominently through
government and business.
Although nepotism in the government is officially frowned upon, family ties
in the Philippines are particularly strong, just as families are particularly large,
with six children common.
Part of the pattern of Filipino life is doing business with relatives, not only
because they need jobs, too, but because they can be trusted more easily than
strangers, social scientists say.
Most major Philippine corporations remain in the control of single families,
even though their stocks are on sale to the public.
Through marriage, Filipinos have built extensive financial empires with
lines running from the sugar business to industry to the ownership of banks and
insurance companies, almost all run by family members.
Roman Catholic sociologist Rev. Jaime C. Bulatao has reported he had
found the family the strongest Filipino values, “a defense against a potentially
hostile world, as insurance against hunger and old age, as a place where one
can be oneself.”
When President Ferdinand Marcos swore in his 46-year-old wife on
November 6 as first governor of a new integrated metropolitan Manila, she
joined her younger brother, Benjamin ‘Kokoy’ Romualdez, governor of Leyte,
her family’s central Philippines home province, and Elizabeth Marcos-Keon,
Marcos’ sister, who is governor of llocos Norte in northern Luzon, the Marcos
family’s ancestral home. Diplomatic sources have said Benjamin Romual-
dez may be his brother-in-law’s first ambassador to Peking.
The 58-year-old President’s relatives are fewer than his wife’s. His brother,
Dr. Pacifico Marcos, is head of the Philippines’ medicare program and has been
suggested as health secretary in his brother’s Cabinet.
Marcos accepted last September 19 the resignation of 70-year-old
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Education Secretary Juan Manuel, an uncle.
Another uncle, Modesto Farolan, is Philippine ambassador to Indonesia. A
second cousin, Maj. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, is a West Point graduate who
commands the constabulary. A top candidate to become the armed forces next
chief of staff, he is one of the most powerful figures in the martial law regime.
Another cousin of Mrs. Marcos is E. P. Romualdez, executive editor of the
Philippines Daily Express, which often represented the official martial law
regime view.
The Express and the Times-Journat, controlled by Gov. Romualdez, led the
campaign in the carefully monitored news media to publicize an effort to “draft”
Mrs. Marcos as Manila governor.
The day after swearing in his wife, Marcos was shown in a picture in the
Manila press playing a game of pelota with Col. Francisco Romualdez, his
brother-in-law and presiding officer of a military tribunal.
Col. Edon Yap, married to Mrs. Marcos’ sister, is his sister-in-law’s aide-
de-camp.
Among Imelda’s varied activities in actively sharing the powers of the
dictatorship, she enjoys most the task which gives her the illusions of a woman
with vast pretensions of being a world diplomat as she goes about her royal
hegira. Her international jaunts, undertaken on the excuse of opening doors for
the New Society, have taken her to Persepolis in Persia, to Moscow, many
times to the United States, the United Kingdom and Rome, to China’s Mao Tse-
Tung, Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Mexico’s Miguel Echevarria. All these trips have
been quite expensive and extravagantly financed, what with the First Lady
spending money in certain places like money was going out of style.
Although, for Imelda, the job of international diplomacy holds a special
allure, she also feels that it is the area of the conjugal dictatorship where she
has a strong rival still from the direction of the incumbent secretary of foreign
affairs, Gen. Carlos P. Romulo. The goberna-diktadura * 13 realizes that old
man Romulo is just too big a diplomatic giant for her to eclipse right away. For,
whatever criticisms we may have labelled back home against Romulo, the
inescapable reality is that the diplomat from Camiling, Tarlac, has built a name
for himself in the United States and around the world, whether through
genuine credits or phony strategem. The value of Romulo had long been
recognized by Marcos so that the President had resisted attempts of the First
Lady and Kokoy Romualdez to have the aging world statesman replaced as
foreign secretary by Imelda herself. Besides, Marcos needs a respectable front
for the ogre that is martial law, and Romulo is second to none in the
urea where it really counts: the United States.
(*13. A corruption of the words “gobemadora" and “dictator,” female version.)
Of course, Romulo has had to make his own accommodations and
personal compromises with the martial regime. Among contemporary Filipino
leaders, Romulo has distinguished himself for his uncanny ability of being able
to determine just what o’clock of the day it is under any post-war Philippine
regime. This has enabled him to make the proper and timely 180 degree
turn that he must take, if necessary, under the tried and tested principle of
flexibility. CPR has superbly avoided making any direct involvement in the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
stampede for “incompetent praise” of the Marcos dictatorship in forums usually
available to him in the United States. To date, he has delivered only one signifi-
cant speech in favor of martial law. It was a speech entitled “Our Democratic
Revolution” which Romulo delivered on May 24, 1973, before the
Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco. However, he has never
stopped issuing statements whenever he is abroad in praise of President
Marcos and his dictatorship, although somehow these statements surprisingly
move out only through the Manila circuits of the “Associated Press” and the
“United Press International,” a system of mass communication that seems to
indicate that the Romulo praises for Marcos are only for the consumption of the
government-controlled Manila media to be beamed exclusively to the Dictator.
But, if CPR thinks that he is entirely in the good graces of the conjugal
dictatorship, he could be wrong, at least insofar as the female half of the ruling
duumvirate is concerned.
Mrs. Marcos has come to distrust Romulo as a scene-stealer in the jet-set
world diplomacy that she has assigned to herself.
On the other hand, it is really Romulo who should express some concrete
form of protest to the usurpation by Imelda of the functions of the foreign
secretary.
The first “break” between Imelda and Romulo in the job of diplomacy came
when the First Lady scheduled a “first” visit to mainland China in late June,
1974, as a follow up to her “successful” trip to Indonesia earlier in May. To the
consternation of Mrs. Marcos, Romulo announced in the newspapers that he
was going to make a goodwill tour in behalf of President Marcos of the eastern
European countries.
I had a mind to ask President Marcos at the time why he had to approve
the trip of Romulo to eastern Europe at about the time that the First Lady would
be visiting Peking. The thought never occurred to me at the time that the
President might perhaps want to downgrade the trip of Mrs. Marcos to China in
order not to unduly antagonize the Soviet bloc countries in eastern Europe.
Imelda, however, viewed the scheduled European tour of Romulo in
another light. She suspected that the Romulo trip was a plot to upstage her and
make Romulo share with her the newspaper in charge for the Philippines. That
would diminish the luster of her expected diplomatic triumph.
Mrs. Marcos cancelled her trip and re-set it for September, allowing
Romulo to undertake his trip. A new announcement was then made to the effect
that Mrs. Marcos suddenly checked into the Makati Medical Center suffering
from a virus infection of her respiratory tract. The First Lady had learned the
usefulness of a diplomatic illness; she never went to the hospital; she never
had any infection of any kind, at that time.
The First Lady still watches out for CPR’s moves that might upstage her in
the world diplomatic arena! Imelda was fed some time ago with the line that her
inability to obtain an audience with President Ford at the White House was due
to some advance warnings allegedly given by Romulo to his friends in the State
Department that Ford would be ill-advised to receive Imelda at this time.
The strength and power of Imelda as the un-expendable female half of the
conjugal dictatorship is anchored to the fact that the First Lady has so
conditioned the mind of President Marcos that the Apo is nothing without the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
No. 1 wife. This is one big reason that the First Lady almost always can have
her way, whether it be a demand that she be dispatched to this or that
coronation or to be allowed to engage in some lavish and bacchanalian festivity
in Manila or abroad.
The canard is that Marcos is either only trying to humor Imelda about her
potentials as a world-girdling diplomat or that he just wants to get rid of her in
Manila most of the time. In any case, both suggestions are proving to be very
expensive for the Filipino taxpayers.
The First Lady herself explains to her intimate crowds that she — and
Kokoy to a lesser degree — constitute the President’s first line of defense from
criticisms from foreign quarters or from a possible coup d’etat.
“I serve as the lightning rod who could blunt or draw away fire from the
President,” Imelda once told a small group that included myself, Clave, De
Vega and Tuvera. She caught us “idling” near the communications room while
waiting for Marcos to wind up a confidential session with a Lebanese visitor
who was proposing then the establishment of casinos along Roxas Boulevard.
In a word, both the President and the First Lady have convinced
themselves that Imelda is Marcos’ strength and weakest point; without her, he
would be an easy prey or target to any ambitious groups, be they supported by
the CIA and/or by U.S. Ambassador William Sullivan or not.
At one time, Mrs. Marcos made a calculated leak that she suspects that
Secretaries Enrile, Romulo and Tatad might be involved in a triple alliance to
knock her off so that Marcos would subsequently become easy prey to their
conspiracy to install themselves in power.
“The President and I will not confront any one of them, but they are bound
to know that I, at least, am watching them, and suspect them of being in league
with each other to embarrass me,” Mrs. Marcos declared. “I know anyway that
what I say around the Palace would reach these people,” she added.
Then, suddenly the President was through with his Lebanese visitor.
Unobtrusively placing himself in a position where he would not be noticed by
the agitated First Lady, Marcos sat down and listened, all smiles.
“Magaling mag analyze ang First Lady. Halika na at gutom-na-gutom na
ako!” (The First Lady analyzes things very well. Come on, I am very hungry!)
Marcos cut in.
As a parting talk to us, and with a wink with one of her eyes, Imelda said:
“Let us watch these people. And let us include (Executive Secretary Alejandro)
Melchor. He is also a CIA boy, and an ambitious man.”
One day, not long after that Palace talk on the conspiratorial group, the
foreign press produced a spate of criticisms against the First Lady for her
staging of an expensive 1974 Miss Universe Pageant while the Filipino people
are wallowing in misery and want. The sudden condemnation of the staging of
the MUP in Manila was triggered by a memorandum of Tatad “scolding” the
Manila newspapers for too much publicity of the Miss Universe affair when
people might resent the beauty pageant because of the difficulties they are
wallowing in. The First Lady interpreted the Tatad memo as an application of
the Tagalog saying: “Na sa kalabaw ang hataw, nasa kabayo ang latay.” The
literal meaning is that one flogs a carabao but the horse shows all the welts.
Imelda judged correctly that she was the object of the Tatad criticism but the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
information secretary went about the round-about way to avoid the ire of the
First Lady, thinking apparently he would get away with it. It turned out later that
the Tatad memo was actually urged on the secretary by some Cabinet
members during a regular Wednesday morning inter-departmental committee
session at the conference room of the Development Bank of the Philippines in
Makati.
Instead of just taking it out on Tatad, the First Lady blamed the conspiracy
of Enrile, Romulo, Melchor and Tatad, saying it was part of a continuing plot to
get rid of the President’s “first line of defense.” When the First Lady launched
her counter-attack, which included a conference with Secretary of Tourism
Jose I). Aspiras, Secretaries Clave, De Vega and key officials of the
Department of Tourism, at her Music Room, she repeated her accusations
against the conspiratorial group of Enrile, Romulo, Melchor and Tatad.
About October 15,1 974, T atad submitted a 1 7-page letter of resignation to
the President, blaming “officials” and “other persons close to the President” for
putting him in trouble with the First Lady. Marcos held the resignation under
advisement. Up to now, however, he has not allowed Tatad to make any
foreign trip. Tatad could be an authoritative source of confirmation or emphasis
for the contents of this book, if he should ever have the chance to behave like
a true newspaperman beyond the reach of the martial regime. I am sure he is
rarin’ to have just the opportunity I now am enjoying.
Watching out for potential threats to the stability of the conjugal rulers is
another important function the First Lady has imposed upon herself. And
American Ambassador Sullivan is one such object of her sentry duty.
The assignment of Sullivan as replacement of Byroade in Manila has been,
and continues to be, regarded by the ruling duumvirate with grave suspicion.
They think that Sullivan, more than any other U.S. resident envoy before, is the
man who could set up a potentially more troublesome atmosphere for the
martial regime and President Marcos personally. They feel that Sullivan was
purposely assigned to the Philippines at a time when both the Parity Rights
provision and the Laurel-Langley agreement were expiring by July 3, 1974.
Sullivan actually has never been thought to be a tough individual outside
his office. As a matter of fact, he is all smiles when he goes to the Palace. And
this is what makes Mrs. Marcos so uncomfortable when Sullivan is around the
Palace. The First Lady feels jittery about Sullivan even when the American
envoy is just thought to be working in the U.S. chancery or delivering speeches
in far-flung areas in the Philippines. Mrs. Marcos even notices the fact that
Sullivan is in great demand as a guest speaker for all kinds of gatherings in the
provinces.
So unsure and suspecting are the Marcoses about Sullivan that, from the
first day of the envoy’s arrival in Manila up to this time, they decided that he
should be tailed, and his every movement watched and reported immediately
to the National Intelligence and Security Agency, the command center of Mar-
cos’ secret police. Even Sullivan’s Filipino driver reports to the NISA. Some of
Sullivan’s clerks in the U.S. embassy also report to General Ver’s office.
“Bantayan natin Hong puti na ito. . . o,o, si datu Puti. . . kay ito ang gagawa
ng hindi mabuti sa atin,” Mrs. Marcos remarked one day. (Let’s watch out for
this white man . . . yes, yes, the white datu . . . because he is the kind of a man
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
who will do us no good.)
The ruling duumvirate believe that even now Sullivan is laying down the
infrastructure of his real assignment in Manila — to engineer one day a coup
d’etat against Marcos when he gets the signal that the Dictator is no longer
useful to military and economic objectives of the United States in the
Philippines.
The credentials that Sullivan brought to the Philippines are really so
impressive as to arouse suspicions of an insecure conjugal dictatorship. He
was a right hand man of State Secretary Henry Kissinger who is generally
believed to have given the go-signal for the coup d'etat against President
Allende in Chile. Before that, Sullivan was the quiet, unassuming American am-
bassador in Laos when Cambodian Prince-Premier Norodom Sihanouk was
overthrown by General Lon Nol. It was a bloodless coup d’etat believed to have
been the handiwork of the CIA working through Sullivan.
Sullivan’s forbidding presence alone in Manila has already produced some
desired results for American interests in the Philippines. On his own volition,
Marcos extended the life of the Parity Rights and the Laurel-Langley Agreement
by one year. Both instruments were to have expired on June 3,1 974.* 14
(* 14 . See Chapter on “International Protection Racket.)
While Marcos capitulated to the still unarticulated demand of Sullivan, he
nevertheless resorted to breast-beating on the matter of the expiring Parity
Rights and the Laurel-Langley Agreement. He did so after taking careful note
of the changing mood of the U.S. Congress in the matter of continuing military
and economic assistance to the regime.
Marcos declared during a press conference that the martial law regime was
reexamining its foreign policy with a view to cutting off the apron strings that tie
the Philippines to the United States and would diversify its foreign policy to
establish ties with the Communist countries.
As Marcos aired his warnings, mainly for the consumption of Sullivan,
companies of heavily armed troopers were thrown around the Greater Manila
area, including the piers and the international airport, making them so
conspicuous to U.S. officials and CIA agents as to convince everybody that the
military, which is loyal to the President, will not be caught napping by any CIA-
engineered coup d’etat.
Then, as if to add another dire message for good measure, Marcos retired
on the dot — not a minute longer than his mandatory retirement age — one of
the few remaining decent officers in the public armed forces, Lt. Gen. Rafael
lleto, AFP vice chief of staff and heroic Huk fighter in the category of the late
Colonel Napoleon Valeriano.
The action of Marcos seemed odd. But it was understandable, lleto is
generally regarded as a CIA front man in the armed forces, although, perhaps,
it is an unfair accusation. He is definitely a good soldier. It is just that he showed
a greater regard and respect for the honor code of the military, lleto refused to
be drawn into any plotting for the imposition of martial law. He thus came under
suspicion as to his loyalty to Marcos. When martial law was declared, lleto was
placed under virtual house arrest for several days.
lleto, from the very beginning of the Marcos presidency, made it plain that
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
he would not stand for any martial law, if he can have his say. Thus, he was
never invited to join the “Inner Seven” and the “Outer Eleven,” which are groups
of ranking armed forces officers referred to in flattering tones by the President
as “the military junta, advising me and for which I carry out orders.”
The military being the very backbone of his dictatorship, Marcos makes
sure that it is not only loyal to him. He sees to it that the military does not neglect
its main task of maintaining the stability of the conjugal rulers in Malacanang.
Although the bulk of the military is tied down in the Mindanao campaign against
the Muslim rebels, the President has made sure that he has the best trained
outfit in charge of Palace Security. This is the Presidential Security Command,
which is headed by Gen. Ver, who is also the NISA director general. Members
of the PSC are occasionally sent out on combat missions to Mindanao, the
Bicol region and Isabela in order to maintain their combat proficiency and to
gain added field experience.
For instance, the skinny senior aide-de-camp to the President, Major Ely
Yoro, is a medalist paratrooper, judo-karate expert and helicopter-fighter pilot.
He also has a weakness for nightclubs and hostesses, and the collection of
wherewithal for his future security.
As Marcos and his own security people concentrate on the conjugal
leadership’s security, the other pressing problems of the state are naturally
neglected.
“He cannot do it alone!” protested Tony Clifton of Newsweek in writing
about how Marcos has substituted his one-man puny judgement for those of
many (members of Congress) in solving the various problems of the country.
Neither can Ferdinand and Imelda do it just by the two of them. It is just
impossible, and their fumbling attempts at excluding others in solving the
nation’s problems and other affairs of state are wreaking havoc on the country,
its government and people.
The situation deprives local officials of initiative — and yet every time the
President meets with his Cabinet, he would upbraid them for their ineptitude
and inaction on pressing matters in their respective departments.* 15
(* 15 . See Daily Express, Sept. 12, 1974.)
Hoy, hindi nagustuhan ni Sir angginawa mo, ”(Hey, Sir [the President] didn’t
like what you did) is a warning that is often relayed by the presidential sub-
alterns to the line bureaucrats.
After receiving the admonition, the tendency of the shaking and worried
bureaucrat would be to freeze action on any matter pending in his office. What
would come immediately to his mind is the fact that he has filed an undated
letter of resignation with the Office of the President. He and the thousands of
other state employees have been required to file their resignation under the
terms of Letters of Instructions Nos. 1 1 and 14.
Sometimes it’s the male Dictator himself who would call a bureau director
or Cabinet head to give direct instructions on how a particular policy should be
implemented or followed through. Simple but stem instructions, like “Hold this
in the meantime,” or “Submit further report on this,” or “For immediate study
and report to me” are handwritten by Marcos himself on pieces of papers that
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Presidential Executive Assistant Jacobo C. Clave dutifully transmit to the official
or state employee concerned.
“Huwag mo raw gawin muna iyan. Wala pang sinabi si Mam, "(Don’t do that
yet. Mam [the First Lady] has not yet decided on what should be done about
that), is another typical message that a government official gets from the
Diktadura’s assistants, like Ods Villacorta or Fe Aquino.
When the orders come from Kokoy Romualdez, these are usually
transmitted by either Airport Manager Luis Tabuena or Immigration
Commissioner Edmundo Reyes.
These messages from the assistants of the Dictator, or the Diktadura or
Kokoy are enough to freeze papers where they are. The bureaucrats would
rather commit the sin of inaction while waiting for further word from the higher
ups.
An example of this state of things is the management of the two-building
Philippine Center in San Francisco. Aside from housing the offices of the
Philippine Consulate General, and renting out some office spaces to favored
parties, like the Bataan T ravels (which is owned by a crony of President Marcos,
Dr. Leonilo Malabed), nothing much has been done to improve the buildings
and thus make the spaces available for rent to other parties. When Ambassador
Alconcel was still actively officiating as consul general in San Francisco, he
wanted to finish the re-modelling of the proposed Philippine Center. However,
he was stalled by a simple message from Tabuena that, according to Kokoy,
Imelda has not yet given instructions on how the Center should be re-modelled.
Image the stagnation in the country because nothing can move or be
moved without specific direct instructions from the conjugal dictatorship. And
this sense of paralyzation or do-nothing attitude has seeped down to the lowest
municipal worker.
In just a very short period, the dictatorial martial regime has thus
succeeded in stultifying a once functioning government, if erratically or
dishonestly, into an unresponsive bureaucracy.
The lowly municipal mayor, the city mayor or provincial governor cannot
do anything of major significance because he may not meet with the approval
of the President or might offend the finer sensibilities of Imelda.
For lack of anything else to do, and to insure their ingratiation with the
ruling duumvirate, the local executives and even the Cabinet members had
made it their important concern and chores to attend to the beautification
campaign of the First Lady and her more expensive impact projects, like the
Heart Foundation, Nutrition Center, etc., forgetting or neglecting the more
important aspects of government.
The unceremonious ouster of Executive Secretary Alejandro Melchor from
all his government positions just because he steered a collision course with
Imelda, the governor of Greater Manila, by opposing the over-development of
the metropolitan area, is still fresh in the minds of all officials serving under the
conjugal dictatorship.
For instance, Mayor Luis Santos, of Davao City in southern Philippines,
would rather appropriate money for the beautification of the city parks than
decide on the improvement of the waterworks system. Not that he has not
considered the water requirements of Davaoenos a priority project However,
the important requisite that Malacanang should give its guidance to Santos on
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
who should get the juicy award of the construction job has not yet been
indicated by the Palace.
This Davao situation is typical all over the country. So the work piles up.
We have the spectacle of even the matter of local waterworks requiring the go-
signal from Malacanang.
In some instances, local government officials have also found it advisable
to address a little courtesy communication to Secretary of National Defense, or
the local provincial commander that such and such projects have been
addressed to the President for clearance.
All the project proposals pile up in the Palace. And Secretary Clave and,
for a time, the late Secretary De Vega, whose duty it is to reduce the work load
of the Dictator “so that he does not kill himself working,” necessarily have to sit
down on those unnecessary communications from the local officials.
The national stagnation and worsening situation in the country is clear and
convincing proof that Dictator Marcos may not be in touch at all with the world
or the Filipino people in particular. Some of his actions are obviously not in tune
with the national desire for a return to normalcy.
Right now, Marcos pays more attention to the lobbies of his cronies, in-
laws and other organized minorities with some access to him than to the broad
spectrum of opinion.
Either by choice, or by the machinations of Imelda and Kokoy, with witling
or unwitting assistance from the military leaders, Marcos is now effectively
isolated from the world, the Filipino people and reality.
Marcos has become a prisoner of Imelda!
Imelda and the military have so successfully and heroically convinced
Marcos about the plots on his life that he is now confined to the Palace, the
recreation facilities at the Malacanang Park, the presidential yatch which can
take him with heavy security to either Poro Point or Nasugbu for water skiing.
He can only go to these places after they are heavily secured by the elements
of the Presidential Security Command some of whom are also in the payroll of
Imelda as her own spies on Marcos.
Worse, Imelda keeps dreaming up those military-civilian plots about a
possible coup d’etat. This has prevented Marcos ever leaving the country ; or,
making only brief visits to nearby Asian neighbors as when he had to make a
state visit to the Chinese mainland last June. 1975, or make a one-way visit to
Menado to confer with Indonesian President Suharto.
In the case of the visit with Suharto, the Malacanang press office took great
pains to announce that the trip from Davao to Menado was just as short as
taking a trip from Manila to Tacloban City. The implied message was that there
would hardly be enough time for any would-be plotters against Marcos in the
military establishment.
The major reason for Imelda’s “grounding” of her male counterpart in the
conjugal dictatorship is at once clear. She would have to conduct the urgent
business of global diplomacy for the Philippines, while Marcos is confined in his
movements to a constricted area where the First Lady could still spy on him
and check on his fidelity.
The “de factor” status attained by the conjugal dictatorship in the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Philippines should be the only explanation for the confusion of the public and
private functions of the President and the First Lady. It is the only excuse that
historians might collate when they start asking how in heaven’s name there is
a well ordered confusion in their use of public funds for public and private
activities.
When it comes to the needs of Imelda. and they are numerous, there can
be no distinction on where the funds come from. She draws funds for her
expensive impact projects and extravagant trips and jet-set parties abroad from
the President’s discretionary fund, from the so-called Marcos Foundation, or
from any government office or financing institution.
There are no restraints on the extravagant parties, or the expensive foreign
jaunts of Imelda. Her expenditures for the lavish Palace parties are no longer
subject to government auditing as in the days before martial law. Who would
ever dare do that?
Imelda’s well-publicized extravagance in her conduct of her own share in
the affairs of state is precisely a most distinguishing feature of the conjugal
dictatorship in the Philippines. By her extravagance, Imelda not only empties
the public till most of the time, but she even encourages further resort to graft
and corruption by subordinate officials. Her flair for extravagance has also
caused widespread resentment within the business community, including the
big multinationals.
The Miss Universe Pageant held in Manila in July, 1974, proved to be
nothing but a monument to Imelda’s penchant for extravagance and high
international living. So scandalous was the spending of government and private
funds to put the MUP extravaganza that not even the Cabinet, the official family
of the President, could keep its peace. The Cabinet slyly instigated Information
Secretary Tatad into prodding the international press to inquire about the
funding for the pageant, reaping for the First Lady a spate of news stories (in
foreign newspapers, of course) so critical of the First Lady’s sponsorship of a
beauty pageant when her countrymen are wallowing in abject misery and
poverty.
The President’s contingent fund, the military’s intelligence fund, and the
trust funds of the Government Service Insurance System, the Central Bank, the
Philippine National Bank, the Development Bank of the Philippines, the Social
Security System, and the Philippine Veterans Bank as well as private banks,
foreign companies doing business in the Philippines and the Federation of
Chinese Chambers of Commerce were all tapped, or virtually subjected to
extortion, for heavy contributions for the coffers of the MUP. The extorted funds
were used to augment the “minimum allocation” so widely publicized in the
controlled press as the only expenditure of the Philippine government for the
MUP-lmelda extravaganza. In addition to direct expenditures, so many more
millions of pesos were spent in connection with the pageant to underwrite the
re-painting and decoration of all public and private buildings along the major
thoroughfares of Manila and the suburbs, and cities in the provinces where the
MUP participants toured subsequent to the pageant proper. There were also
gargantuan expenses incurred by the Department of National Defense and the
governments of Manila and suburban cities and towns for the security forces
and hospitality arrangements provided for the beauty contestants.
Secretary Enrile wryly remarked after the MUP extravaganza: “Gosh, if only
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
I can be allowed to spend the money allocated for the Miss Universe security
for the peace and order campaign, I assure you I would be able to liquidate the
New People’s Army in northern Luzon and in the Bicol provinces in no time
at all.”
President Marcos just didn’t know how much was really spent for and in
connection with the Miss Universe Pageant. He even called my attention to
what he thought was an erroneous report in my column to the effect that the
amount of P40 million (roughly $5.5 million) was spent for the Imelda extrava-
ganza. Marcos reminded me that, when the First Lady sought his approval to
hold the 1974 MUP in Manila, she said the government would have to
appropriate only a minimum amount. Well, actually the First Lady didn’t squawk
when the President appropriated only a small amount from the government
coffers for the pageant. She was so sure that she would be able to tap other
sources, within or without the government, for the larger amounts needed to
finance the pageant. And she conducted her fund-raising with the expertise of
a special forces trooper.
Secretary of Tourism Aspiras let the word out on how much was spent for
the Miss Universe affair. Answering press criticisms inspired by the Tatad
memorandum, Aspiras declared that, in terms of world-wide publicity and
goodwill generated by the MUP for the Philippines, “the P40 million we spent
for the pageant was worth it.”
The rough estimate is that Mrs. Marcos collected not less than PI 00 million
from government and private sectors for the MUP. The estimate may well have
been correct. Even provincial and city governments were given quotas on how
much they would contribute to the kitty of the MUP. And these local
governments were given about 50 tickets each for the beauty pageants in
exchange for the P50,000.00 they were directed to raise as their respective
quotas. The allocation of tickets for the provinces and cities was even made to
appear as a display of the solicitude of the First Lady for the provincianos; she
wanted them to see the MUP “for free” and with pride that they edged out the
elite of Manila from the international show.
If the collection went up to PI 00 million and the cost of the MUP was only
P40 million, where did the rest of the money go? There is only one answer
because there is only one collector in the Philippines today.
And yet, the extravagance and ability of Imelda to raise money for such
extravagance actually constitute the very secret of Imelda’s “lakas” or selling
point with the President. She has somehow convinced the Dictator that her
irresistible charm always worked like magic on things and people so that she
can accomplish so much with so little. She plays on the llocano spirit of the
President — getting so much for so little.
Here is where the First Lady plays tricks on the President — at least on this
aspect of the conjugal dictatorship. I cannot guarantee that she does not
deceive the President on other affairs. On almost all the projects that she had
undertaken, Imelda always had made it appear that she spend only the mini-
mum amount, although she actually overspends just to produce results which
the President would figure he would never be able to produce himself for the
budget allocated by him.
Actually, the Imelda projects for which she has been greatly admired and
Primitivo Mijares Page 102.
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
credited for pushing are most expensive. The Cultural Center, the Folk Arts
Theatre, the Heart Foundation, the Nutrition Center, etc. are extravagantly
financed with public and private funds.
I would estimate that, if the normal expenditures for one project is made
known to the President and to the public as consisting say PI million, Imelda
would normally push it through at a minimum cost of F5 million.
And how does she raise the money? Get all the funds earmarked for a
particular project, say the establishment of the Heart Center by the Department
of Health, and then herd the heads of government financing institutions to her
Music Room, call in the chambers of commerce and the bankers’ group and
give them their quotas. The effect is that government financing institutions are
coerced into raiding their fiduciary funds to meet Imelda’s quota and other
revenue-raising offices, like the internal revenue and customs bureau go back
to the “tong collection” system to raise funds, while the businessmen are
forced to pass on the Imelda quota to their hapless customers in the form of
increased prices of goods.
Every time Imelda embarks on a project or a trip abroad, she would not let
the President know her exact financial requirements. She would simply ask
Marcos for an official allocation and then make him feel that whatever he
authorizes would be more than enough.
For instance, the 1974 trip of Mrs. Marcos to New York to inaugurate the
Philippine Center was presented to the President as a simple trip involving only
herself and Fe Aquino. But in conspiracy with Kokoy, she authorized through
other government offices the trip to New York of numerous government
personnel from the Presidential Security Command, the National Media
Production Center, the Department of Trade and Commerce, the Department
of National Defense, the Department of Education, the Department of Tourism
and the Department of Health.
The 1974 trip of Imelda also made use of the C-130 Hercules cargo plane
given by the United States as part of the foreign assistance program to the
Philippine government. The C-130 ferried Imelda’s wardrobe and image-
building printed materials, and the battalion of security men headed by Colonels
Arturo Barangan and Romeo Ochoco.
The establishment of a network of Philippine Centers in major cities abroad
is a most expensive scheme devised by the First Lady to provide her with the
excuse to gallivant around the world. She is either inaugurating one center or
attending ceremonies marking the anniversary of the inauguration of another.
The projects themselves are quite expensive, especially because she
attends to them personally. It is now universally known that whatever Imelda
handles becomes three or four times more expensive.
In the case of the Philippine Center in New York on Fifth Avenue, this
window-less symbol of the closed society that martial law has established in
the Philippines was designed for anything but the Filipino community in the
eastern seaboard. It was really designed to suit the expensive taste of Imelda
for luxurious living.
It was supposed to house the representatives of all government offices in
New York, but the DPI man, Alejandro Del Rosario, doesn’t even have a table
space in the entire set up.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Only five of the seven floors of the building are actually available for the
various offices of the Philippine government. The basement is for a restaurant
run by Nora Daza as ordered by Imelda — to prepare the food for Imelda’s
parties there. The sixth and seventh floors are reserved — for Imelda! The sixth
floor is a presidential suite. But hasn’t Imelda conditioned the mind of the
President that it would be dangerous for him to venture outside Asia? So, the
suite is for Imelda. So is the seventh floor which has been converted into a
pelota court — for Imelda.
I have not seen the other Philippine Centers in Canberra and Hongkong. I
assume that they have the same luxurious appointments to suit the taste of
Imelda.
The Philippine Center in San Francisco is yet to be touched. Alconcel has
been driven out of the San Francisco consulate general by my expose on his
attempt to bribe me in behalf of the President. Perhaps, his successor, Minister
Romeo Arguelles, would be able to make things move, since he is reputed to
be a protege of Kokoy Romualdez.
The extravagance of Imelda and the insincerity of Marcos as they march
forward with their conjugal dictatorship all the more make a mockery of martial
law as an instrument of reformation in the Philippines.
So much hope was built up upon the proclamation of martial law; so much
so that messages poured into the Palace in hopeful tones expecting real better
days for the ravaged country.
For the accession of Marcos to absolute power was, on the whole,
accepted with philosophy and even a certain degree of favorable anticipation
by the Filipino people. Many sectors sent him obsequious congratulation; there
were allusions that, at last, “this nation will really be great again.”
Other sectors approved the martial law proclamation, believing that the
nation, after its “shakings,” had at last been set on a proper, enduring basis.
Marcos publicly responded by saying that, with God’s guidance and the
people’s continuing support, he would carry on the weighty responsibilities
thrust upon him to establish a New Society. He said he would reform society
through a “democratic revolution.” And yet, this early — is it too late? — he has
fallen into the disrepute which, he recalled, was the lot of the revolutionary
leaders of 1896: they could not make an honest revolution. Neither could he,
not even with — or perhaps because of — the meddling of Imelda.
The only thing that I might say of Marcos is that, perhaps, he entertained
the thought that he could go against the tide of history. He might have hoped
that he could succeed where greater and more influential figures in history have
failed. Marcos used to tell us that he had studied thoroughly — and taken steps
not to fall into — the mistakes that led dictators before him to their doom. At this
early stage, I am afraid that Marcos cannot escape the experience of mankind;
he will go the way dictators before him have gone — the excruciatingly painful
verdict of history, at a time when he can no longer defend himself.
Mankind, in its slow, imperceptible and unerring ways, has rejected through
the ages the use of martial might to reform society. It is holding its truth in the
Philippine situation.
While martial law was publicly held out by Marcos as a vehicle for
restructuring the social, political and economic problems of the country, Marcos
found them so grave and deeply rooted, and decided to abandon the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
reformation task in favor of simply creating a dictatorship that Imelda has turned
into a conjugal authoritarian rule.
While Marcos declared that he would reform society to eliminate the
privileges of the few in order that the rights of the many may be respected, he
has succeeded only in eliminating both the privileges of the few and the rights
of many in order to concentrate absolute power in one man and distribute
privileges only to his cronies.
While Marcos pledged to eliminate graft and corruption, these ills of the so-
called old society has even assumed an even more serious proportion under
the New Society, falling into the pattern that “power corrupts, and absolute
power corrupts absolutely.” Lord Acton must be turning over in his grave over
the Philippine situation.
The Philippine situation brings to mind what that foremost Filipino educator,
Don Camilo Osias, said of the administration of another llocano, the late
President Elpidio Quirino (of llocos Sur, also in northern Philippines).
Campaigning as the vice presidential candidate of the late Jose P. Laurel, Sr.,
Osias said in 1949: “The government headed by Quirino is a government off
the people, fool the people and buy the people.”
However, the conjugal dictatorship will not be content for long about their
present domain in the Philippines. The ruling duumvirate still think in terms of
annexing Sabah to the Philippines in the not-too-distant future. They believe it
is a sacred duty mandated by the martial law Constitution. Sabah and its
rich resources were very much in the mind of Marcos when he personally wrote
the definition of Philippine territory in the Constitution which he ordered the
Constitutional Convention at gunpoint to approve. It read:
“The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the
islands and waters embraced therein, and all the other territories belonging to
the Philippines by historic or legal title, including the territorial sea, the air space,
the sub-soil, the sea-bed, the insular shelves, and the other submarine areas
over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction. The waters around,
between and connecting the islands of the archipelago, irrespective of their
breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines.”
(Italics supplied).
The question is often asked why Imelda has made it a consuming ambition
to share the powers of the dictatorship of Marcos. The answer is that Imelda
knows one vital principle of the Philippine civil code which she thinks is of
appropriate usage to her: that anything brought into, or acquired during,
the marriage is conjugal.
Chapter V
Infrastructure of Martial Law
Marcos did not panic into dictatorship.
Weeks before Marcos rang the curtain down on democracy in the
Philippines, the whiff of revolution was sharp and unmistakable. It was evident
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
that the country was on the verge of its biggest social upheaval. The pace was
dizzying. And most everybody, from Marcos to the common street walkers,
were blaming Communists and their agents provocateur for every rally,
demonstration, or terror-bombing.
Few knew that Marcos had been exploiting the unfolding revolutionary
drama.
Marcos was well on his way to setting up the excuses to extend his term in
office long enough to launch an imperial dynasty in the Philippines. He was
doing it with a fine Hitlerian hand that would make the burning of the German
Reichstag the job of a piker.
The greatest infrastructure ever undertaken by Marcos was on. It was done
behind the back of people who trusted him, people who rallied to him and who
relied so much on him to bring to reality a dreamy campaign slogan that “This
nation can be great again.” It was treachery of the highest order, far
outweighing the treacherous shooting of Julio Nalundasan.
But there were visible crowd-pleasing infrastructures, too. Ribbons of
cemented highways and bridges spanning rivers and linking heretofore
inaccessible areas to the main arteries of commerce. Public works and “green
revolution.” All these were undertaken only to conceal the greatest personal
and political infrastructure that Marcos had decided to set up for himself
and his gang.
The beginning infrastructure for martial law was actually laid down by
Marcos as early as the first day of his assumption of the Philippine presidency
on December 30,1965.
I may be guilty of hindsight now — for hindsight can be so easy — but I can
see that the first concrete step taken by Marcos to steel himself for the
declaration of martial law came when he decided to appoint himself as his own
Secretary of National Defense when he assumed the presidency for the first
time.
And the conjugal dictatorship shaped up at about that time, too. Imelda had
decided, after a few days of occupancy of Malacanang, that she and Ferdinand
need not give up the Palace after eight years. Thus, the “Blue Ladies” * 1 would
get bored listening to Imelda talk about the enormous problems of the
country which no President can solve in eight years. With the familiar naughty
wink of her right eye, she would wind up her peroration by stating: “We (a vague
collective pronoun which could mean including the ‘Blue Indies’) will stay here
in Malacanang all our lives.”
(* 1 . They were the wives and/or daughters of the supporters of Marcos in the first (1965)
campaign for the presidency. Led by Mrs. Marcos, they put on a blue uniform and formed an, elite
female corps of campaigners for Marcos. With victory, the female campaigners formed an exclusive
group, styling themselves the “Blue Ladies.”)
Thoughts of one day ruling as a strong man under martial law were already
in the mind of Ferdinand E. Marcos as early as his student days in the University
of the Philippines.
Oral evidence on the thoughts of Marcos about martial law was provided to
me boastfully in the manner of persons revealing intimate secrets of demi gods
whose confidence they want everybody to know they enjoy. They were Marcos’
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
favorite classmates, Ambassador Roberto S. Benedicto, GSIS Board Vice
Chairman Leonilo Ocampo and Agrarian Court Judge Felicisimo Ocampo. They
were all Upsilonian fraternity brothers of Marcos. * 2
(*2. The “Upsilon Sigma Phi” at the University of the Philippines was the most prestigious
fraternity thereabouts.)
The President himself did repeatedly explain to me that a martial law
regime for the Philippines was virtually a lifetime ambition for him. He would
talk about his youthful ambition for a strong man ruler for the Philippines during
his spare hours on Saturdays, about noon time, and Sundays, after the six
o’clock evening mass at the Malacanang reception hall. I sort of monopolized
the time of the President during those hours. It was just inconceivable that any
of the presidential assistants — Clave, De Vega and T uvera — would abandon
their own personal infrastructures on weekends to be with the President.
I had compelling reasons to see the President even on Saturdays and
Sundays. I was a seven-day week newspaperman. I was working as a reporter-
columnist for his newspaper, and doubling as his propagandist and media
censor. I took advantage of his leisure moments to shoot the breeze with him;
pick his mind, so to speak. I was duty-bound to compile enough story ideas and
column materials for days in advance, not only for my newspaper but also for
the other newspapers whose Malacanang beat reporters rely on me for
presidential “news.”
I am still puzzled up to this time though why Marcos really gave me much
of his time. During those Saturday and Sunday sessions, he would ask me what
the people outside were thinking about. He wanted to know from me if the
people really approved of the state of things under a martial regime. It was
during those talks that I would act out my role as a “Devil’s Advocate.” He would
also talk about future plans of the regime in jig-saw pieces, not in their entirety.
He would put his ideas across in various ways. He would ask questions, or talk
about ways of dealing with people who still oppose the martial regime, or
declare the necessity of doing certain things. In those sessions, the President
would make me feel that he was intentionally making a gesture of making me
bask in the reflected glory of the dictatorship, or that history was calling upon
him to make a truthful account of his stewardship of the nation through a man
of his confidence like me.
Although I discovered so much out of my closeness to the President, it has
exacted a toll on my family life. The heavier toll came, of course, during my last
departure for the United States on an official mission for the Marcos regime.
The trip led to my defection and forced separation from my family. I used to
have spats with my wife over my absence from the house when I have to be
with the President on Saturdays and Sundays, the only days of the week, she
would argue, when she and I could both be with the children. I could not have
told her then that I was being driven by an irresistible urge of history to pick the
mind of Marcos — even spy on him or pry into his secret files as I did — in order
that I can reveal to posterity the full and unexpurgated story of the perfidy that
Marcos had foisted on the Filipino people. I myself realize this only now.
During those weekend sessions I had with him, the President would talk on
any number of things, including the ambitions and incompetence of most of his
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Cabinet members, or the rapacity of the husband-wife team of Juan T uvera and
Kerima who want to be bigger newspaper oligarchs than either Benedicto or
Kokoy. Almost always, his favorite topic though would be the supposed
historical and legal basis of the regime of martial law he had established in the
country. Then U.P. senior law student Marcos, according to the President’s own
account to me, wrote a legal thesis to comply with the requisites for graduation
on the wisdom and necessity of a regime of “constitutional authoritarianism” to
husband the economic and political development of the Philippines. He wrote
that a “strongman” President was what the Commonwealth needed. Although
he harped on the theme of “constitutional authoritarianism” in his legal thesis,
Marcos recalled, what he actually had in mind as a student was exactly what
he had established as a New Society in the Philippines. He wished then — as
he had realized with martial law — a military dictatorship, with the military kept
subordinate to a civilian President calling the shots all the way.
“I know what’s on your mind, Tibo,” he smiled at me as I knitted my
eyebrows and prepared to say something about a military dictatorship. “I will
never share powers with a military junta. It will be worse than sharing the
powers of government with a Congress.”
Marcos correctly guessed what was on my mind. I had another thought
coming up. However, I dared not betray it. It would have been impudent of me
to have stated that he would be further diluting his powers to share them with
the martial leaders since martial law has compelled him to put up a conjugal
dictatorship with Imelda.
The idea of a meddling wife being allowed to rule jointly with Marcos in
Malacanang was not yet in the consciousness of law student Ferdinand when
he outlined his “constitutional authoritarianism” regime in his legal thesis. His
U.P. classmates, especially Benedicto and Noning Ocampo, recalled that
Marcos actually subconsciously conditioned himself for the eventuality that a
woman would one day share whatever political powers he might have.
Young Ferdinand eyed for conquest at the time another U.P. student,
beauteous Ma. Auroroa Quezon, elder daughter of then President Manuel Luis
Quezon. The tune that Marcos whistled to his classmates was that, to get to
the pinnacle of power politics in the Philippines, which was his ambition, he has
to marry the daughter of a politically-powerful man.
It was not only Baby Quezon that young Marcos had eyed. There was also
voluptuous Carmen Ortega by whom Marcos now has children. Carmen
belonged to the politically powerful clan of the Ortegas in La Union; a bona fide
member, not just a poor relation. Marcos really aspired that early and intended
to employ cunning and deceit to be his country’s dictator one day.
Marcos has never been candid to anyone when it comes to his future
political plans. Conscious of his brief stint as an intelligence officer in the battle
of Bataan with the Japanese, Marcos would reveal his plans in a
compartmented manner. However, there were occasions when he spoke
plainly and clearly. That was when he found it absolutely necessary to impress
people about his program of government.
For instance, in a meeting with members of the armed forces general staff
48 hours before he ordered the implementation of the martial law proclamation,
Marcos declared: “We will be a disciplinary authoritarian government, although
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
at the beginning it may be necessary to make concessions, to entrench the
democratic revolution, which we will style the New Society, solidly in power.”
As I tried to read his mind, I deduced that what he meant by disciplinary
authoritarian government was some kind of an inflexible dictatorship. The
events have borne out my interpretation of his statement. It has always been
that way with me whenever I attend conferences of the President. I have to do
some quick interpretation of the thoughts of Marcos on the assumption that I
would have to write a column or mews story on any particular pronouncement
of the President. This particular conference was, however, deemed by the
President as unnecessary for media purposes.
In that same conference, the President also outlined his thoughts this way:
“We will inculcate the masses of our people with the spirit necessary to travel
the heroic path on which they must be led. We will do this by guiding them
through the press, movies, radio, books and education, and if possible, with the
collaboration of the church people. Our information officials should be able to
start devising means of communications with the people sans media. I hope to
use the coercive force of the military sparingly as we progress.”
At the time, all the plans of Marcos for a military-backed take-over of the
Philippine government from his virtually lame-duck and expiring constitutional
presidency were well on the way to being fully implemented.
I summarized the moves that led to the power seizure by Marcos in a
memorandum I submitted to the Fraser committee, as follows:
I. BEYOND CONSTITUTIONAL RULE
Upon his assumption of the presidency on December 30,1965, Mr.
Marcos positioned himself for a long rule beyond his constitutionally-
allowable two-term tenure which should have ended on December 30, 1 973.
Mr. Marcos evolved and executed a Master Plan that called for:
1) His running for reelection in 1969 and winning a second term "at all
costs.” He won it with "goons, guns and gold” in the dirtiest election ever
held in the Philippines.
Owing to Mr. Marcos’ over-spending of public and privately-supplied
funds for his over-kill “win at all costs” reelection campaign, and puny
attempts of the opposition candidates to match this with their meager
resources, the Philippine economy suffered in 1970 from aft oversupply of
money in circulation. The peso, floated to seek its own level, plunged from
the F3.90 to $ 1 .00 rate to P6.85 to $1 .00 rate. The country’s credit standing
with the World Bank plunged to an all-time low.
2) The declaration of martial law all over the country “at least one year”
before the expiration of his second term on December 30, 1 973.
3) Packing of the Supreme Court with his own handpicked jurists by
the time he declares martial law.
When Mr. Marcos took over the presidency, he figured that in a span
of six years, NINE (9) of the ELEVEN (11) seats in the Supreme Court would
become vacant, hence he could pack the high tribunal with his own men.
Thus, it was not surprising at all that, when questions on the constitutionality
of the martial law proclamation were instituted, the Supreme Court
supported the position of Mr. Marcos and lent a semblance of legality to his
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
declaration of martial rule and to his subsequent actuations whenever they
were challenged in the high court. The complexion of the Supreme Court by
the time martial law was proclaimed on September 21,1972, was self-
evident; only three justices were not Marcos appointees.
4) Control of the military establishment.
When Mr. Marcos took over the presidency on December 30, 1965, he
appointed himself as his own Secretary of National Defense in a clear and
unmistakable move to harmonize the thinking and complexion of the military
establishment with his martial law plans. At the time he took over, he very
well realized that the commands of the major armed services were in the
hands of officers who were not controlled by him. But he was also aware of
the provisions of the National Defense Act which retires officers after 20
years of service with the military. Thus, over the next six years, he
developed friendly young officers and promoted them to major commands
so that they were “in position” when martial law was declared. The military
has been and continues to be the cornerstone of his regime.
5) Packing of the armed forces with officers and new enlistees mostly
from the President’s region of the country, the llocos province.
No less than then Speaker Jose B. Laurel, Jr. took official cognizance
of the abnormally heavy armed forces recruitment from among the llocanos.
Mr. Laurel nettled Mr. Marcos no end when he filed in early 1968 a bill
providing for proportionate representation of all regions of the Philippines in
the country’s armed forces. The explanatory note of the Laurel bill
necessarily exposed in bold figures the President’s packing of the armed
forces with his fellow llocanos.
Opposition Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., now languishing in a
military stockade, denounced Mr. Marcos’ packing of the military
establishment in a Senate speech as “the llocanization of the armed forces.”
6) Control of the local governments.
T raditionally, officials of provincial, city and municipal governments are
subject to the control of the national government. But President Marcos
further strengthened his hold on local governments by fielding in the 1967
and 1 971 mid-term elections candidates for office who were personally loyal
to him, or his wife or his brother-in-law, Benjamin Romualdez.
The elections of 1967 and 1971 were a “dry-run” and a “re-run”,
respectively, of the “goons, guns and gold” elections of 1969.
Mr. Marcos subsequently got Mr. Romualdez, who won his province’s
governorship in the 1967 elections, elected as president of the League of
Provincial Governors and City Mayors. It is interesting to note that there is
local political rivalry between congressmen and governors. Mr. Marcos
exploited this rivalry for the ends of his regime.
7) Positioning of his cronies in top posts of sensitive government
revenue-collecting agencies and financial lending institutions. In their
positions, the Marcos cronies, always careful to remind people they were
squeezing that “20 percent goes to the boss,” collected “kickbacks” on juicy
government contracts and/or “commissions” on loans granted by such
lending institutions as the Philippine National Bank, the Development Bank
of the Philippines, the Government Service Insurance System and the
Social Security System.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
II. PLOT THICKENS
During his first six and a half years in office, President Marcos
continuously altered and improved his “contingency plan” for reigning
beyond December 30,1973, by fabricating incidents, or exacerbating crises
which offered themselves to him without presidential instigation in order to
destroy the people’s faith in their existing form of government and thereby
weaken their opposition to, or accept as an only viable alternative to a
nationwide anarchy, the imposition of martial law.
1) Depreciation of the rival seats of power by continuously accusing
Congress of obstructing vital proposals for reform of society, of utter lack of
concern for the welfare of the suffering masses, of yielding to and/or serving
only the vested interests, and of excessive and scandalous waste of public
funds in the form of unaccountable allowances of the members.
In 1970, Congress was rocked by a so-called “fund transfer scandal.”
It seems that, as a matter of practice inherited from his immediate
predecessor in office, President Marcos had transferred funds in millions of
pesos from his contingency fund as assistance to the House of
Representatives which has always failed to live within its budget. Mr. Marcos
transferred the sum of P69 million from the Palace contingency fund to the
House before the elections of 1 969 to give the congressmen extra campaign
funds for their reelection bid. But it seems that there had been an unequal
and unfair distribution of this money windfall even among the ruling
Nacionalistas. Thus, when some disgruntled solons squawked, President
Marcos saw a golden opportunity to rock the House, for, while the political
party of the President (Nacionalista) controlled Congress, its leadership
were his rivals in power. Mr. Marcos masterminded through Rep. Jose
Leido, Jr., a one time assistant executive secretary in the Office of the
President, a full expose of the unequal distribution of the funds and
thereby caused the fall from power of the leadership of the House, but more
important, the fall from public regard of Congress as a governmental
institution. The press naively collaborated in this effort by giving publicity to
the scandalous allowances enjoyed by the congressmen, but not to the
responsibility of President Marcos for having illegally transferred the funds
from the executive department to the legislative department in the first place.
The hatchet man in that infamous assault on Congress, Mr. Leido, was
made, upon the imposition of martial law, Secretary of Natural Resources
which controls all oil exploration leases and mineral resources. That
department was created for him by the splitting (by presidential decree) of
the original Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
2) Riding on the crest of a wave of dissent by the militant students,
workers, intellectuals and religious elements, Mr. Marcos encouraged,
abetted and himself caused the organization of other forms of
demonstrations to create a situation of chaos and disorder in Manila and
other centers of population throughout the country.
3) Using legitimate demonstrations, President Marcos had military
personnel infiltrate the ranks of demonstrators to explode bombs in their
midst and to instigate the demonstrators into committing acts of violence
and vandalism.
On one occasion, demonstration leaders themselves unmasked three
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Philippine air force personnel, disguised as demonstrators, after exploding
incendiaries in the midst of the demonstrating groups and lobbing some
heavy explosives in front of the consular offices of the United States
embassy along Roxas Boulevard in Manila.
4) Launching by armed forces special psychological warfare units of a
series of terror-bombings — later blamed by Mr. Marcos on the Maoist New
People’s Army — on Manila’s water system (NAWASA), the City Hall
building of Manila, the comfort room of the Constitutional Convention in
Quezon City, the business districts of Manila and other vital installations,
excluding Malacanang Palace, of course, to create a climate of fear and
national paralysis and a sense of despair on the part of the populace.
In a bombing incident on busy Carriedo street in downtown Manila, a
family man who was buying a gift for a child observing his birthday was
blown to bits by a bomb exploded right inside a department store. Two
weeks later, a conscience-stricken Constabulary sergeant assigned to the
firearms and explosives section of Constabulary headquarters in Camp
Crame confessed to having planted the bomb with a delayed action
mechanism “on superior orders.”
Senator Aquino was preparing a documented expose on the criminal
authorship by a special military unit of the series of terror bombings when
martial law was proclaimed. President Marcos almost imposed martial law
prematurely on September 20,1972, when he was told that Mr. Aquino
would deliver a privileged speech on the Senate floor in the afternoon of that
day to expose the Malacanang-ordered terror-bombings as part of a plot to
clamp a martial rule all over the country.
5) Bribery by the President and the First Lady of certain members of
the Constitutional Convention to force action by the convention on two
pivotal areas of the new Charter then being drafted, to wit:
a) Approval of a proposal to change the existing presidential form of
government to the parliamentary system.
b) Defeat of a so-called “ban Marcos” provision in the new Constitution,
which would have disqualified past Presidents, including especially Mr.
Marcos, their spouse and relatives by consanguinity or affinity within the
fourth civil degree from seeking the post of Prime Minister under the new
Charter.
The objective in seeking the prostitution of the Convention, for which
so much has been spent, was clear: To avoid an anticipated accusation that,
having been banned from seeking the premier post under the new
Constitution, President Marcos imposed martial law to hold on to power.
6) Establishment by President Marcos of his own media empire through
front man Roberto S. Benedicto, with heavy borrowings from the Philippine
National Bank which Mr. Benedicto himself headed during the Marcos I
reign.
Failing with bribery and cajolery and other enticements into making the
militant media tone down their criticism of the Marcos II administration,
President Marcos caused the expansion of Benedicto’s small Kanlaon
Broadcasting System into a major radio-television complex. He also had
Benedicto launch a daily newspaper, the “Philippines’ Daily Express”, at a
circulation price under-selling existing newspapers more than 50 percent.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The Benedicto tri-media aggressively mouthed the administration; all its
companies paid part of the salaries of employees as “additional allowance”
coming from the President’s contingent fund.
7) In a move to preempt accusations that his partisans may have
engineered the grenade-bombing of a rally of the opposition Liberal party at
Plaza Miranda on August21,1971, he immediately blamed the incident on
the Maoist NPA rebels. Clearly a diabolical attempt to wipe out the entire
leadership of the opposition LP, the grenade-bombing killed 1 1 persons and
wounded 93 others. XXX
8) Mr. Marcos continued to raise the Communist bugaboo.
In January, 1972, President Marcos lifted the suspension of the
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, stating the Communist threat to the
security of the state had subsided. However, by May, 1972, he was again
availing of the Communist bogey, saying the rebels merely went
underground during the period of suspension of the “writ” and surfaced
anew, stronger than before, when the “writ” was restored.
9) By causing and directing a special operations group of trusted
military men to stage a supposed landing of combat weapons, ammunition
and equipment along the coast of Digoyo, in Palanan, Isabela, on July 2,
1 972, and then loudly claiming it was a shipment of arms made by a foreign
power to the Maoist guerillas. Incidentally, the shipment of arms purportedly
purchased for Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo in his fight against the Americans — a
shipment which never arrived — was scheduled for unloading in the very
same area of Digoyo on July 2, 1901 .
Mr. Marcos claimed the shipment of arms to Digoyo on July 2, 1972,
was intended to carry out the 1972 July-August plan of the Maoist
Communist rebel army to wage open war in Manila and environs against the
government. Having been shown by Secretary of Defense Enrile with a few
mimeographed newssheets captured in a PC raid on a lair of the NPAs in
Bo. Tarimsing, Cordon, Isabela, President Marcos concocted the so-called
1972 July-August attack plan of the NPAs. He said they were revealed in
the captured “Tarimsing documents.”
10. Finally, by faking an ambush on the official car of Secretary Enrile
at about 8:45 p.m. on September 22, 1972, to provide the final excuse for
the implementation of the martial law proclamation (which he signed on
September 21, 1972).
The actual planning for martial law started when Marcos became President.
Although Marcos had dreamed of the authoritarian rule early enough, he was
understandably in no position to do anything until he could assume the No. 1
position within the gift of the Filipino people. Before he could make it to
Malacanang, however, Marcos had had to hurdle two major obstacles, among
others, from the direction of two Visayan personalities, namely, Manila Mayor
Arsenio H. Lacson and then Senate President Pro Tempore Fernando Lopez.
On both occasions, it was Imelda who saved the day for Marcos.
The Lacson hurdle cropped up in 1957. The colorful Manila mayor notified
Nacionalista party leaders that he had compiled a “dossier” on Marcos which
should help the NP candidate, Dr. Jose Peralta, defeat Marcos in the upcoming
elections. Ferdinand was then up for reelection to his third term in the House of
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Representatives. Lacson was sore at Marcos because the latter had
propositioned him into putting up a Lacson-Marcos team for the presidential
elections that year. The mayor also had not forgotten that Marcos had married
Imelda. Somehow friends of Marcos in the NP tipped off the llocano con-
gressman on the Lacson dossier, which reportedly had been prepared with the
legal expertise of a prominent lawyer named Jose W. Diokno. Not unlikely as
one of the Marcos tipsters was Speaker Pro Tempore Daniel Z. Romualdez, a
First cousin of Imelda.
The first impulse of Marcos was to have it out with Lacson, obviously
thinking that Manila was llocos Norte where the law of the gun was supreme.
He thought perhaps that this time he could settle an old score with the Visayan.
Lacson had earlier beaten Marcos black and blue in a fisticuff while both were
working as assistants in the law office of Don Vicente Francisco. However,
Imelda pleaded with her husband to abandon his own plans of dealing with
Lacson. She had her own way of neutralizing the Manila Mayor. Not long
afterwards, a beaming Mayor Lacson told City Hall newsmen, including myself,
that there will be no bombshell against Marcos; Imelda had talked him out of it.
Instead, he would stand as godfather for the Marcoses’ first bom, daughter
Imee.
The second obstacle came shortly after Marcos had clinched the NP
presidential nomination in November, 1964. Marcos and Imelda decided that
Fernando Lopez was the “best choice” for the vice presidential nomination.
Lopez belonged to the NP “old guards,” and his becoming Marcos’ running
mate would firm up the support of the Lopez economic-political bloc headed
by Don Eugenio Lopez, Sr.
But Lopez had made a pledge earlier that if he lost the NP presidential
nomination, he would say goodbye to politics. “No, no,” Lopez declared to two
emissaries dispatched by Marcos — Speaker Jose B. Laurel, Jr. and former
President Carlos P. Garcia. He said he was quitting, period.
Marcos wracked his brains. On the threshold of victory, he would not allow
any further obstacle. No price was too great to pay to have “Toto" Nanding in
his ticket. Yes, the natural choice was Imelda. She could use her wiles, summon
her tears, in talking to Lopez. Which she did when the old Politico went up
to her suite at the Manila Hotel on November 17,1964, instead of allowing
Imelda to call on him to beg for the acceptance by Fernando of the vice
presidential slot.
Marcos is the kind of a man who would risk anything or use anybody or any
strategem to achieve his goals. No one of the techniques of Marcos in
executing his plans or implementing his decisions is an end unto itself. All are
part of the same continuum of attack. All are synchronized into an unremitting
campaign by which he seeks to expand his operations to achieve his objectives.
That was how he plotted the grand design for the establishment of his nascent
imperial dynasty in Manila under the aegis of martial law.
In setting up the process for the eventual imposition of martial law, Marcos
proved himself to be a consummate plotter. He is the perfect quintessence of
the methodical and cunning politician. There is method in his madness; there
is methodical madness in his unending drive for power, longer power, matched
only by Imelda’s insatiable greed for more wealth. After all, it is said that those
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.
Just as Watergate was peanuts compared to the Marcos-espoused
Philippine scandal so was the Segretti operations * 3 a child’s plaything
compared to the measures undertaken by Marcos to subvert the political
process ever since he captured the Philippine presidency.
(*3. Donald Segretti was an aide of U.S President Nixon who confessed
to political dirty tricks.)
The entire detailed plan for the imposition of martial law was a national
contingency plan. It was a product of years of preparation that started from the
day Marcos first took his oath as President on December 30,1965. He set the
preparatory process in motion when he himself assumed the Cabinet portfolio
of defense secretary. It was not that he felt he could not entrust the position of
defense secretary to anyone outside himself. To be sure, there were more men
who could have run the department more efficiently than Marcos himself under
normal conditions. But he wanted a full overview and control of the military
establishment to plot his martial law program. He could not afford any deviation,
or hesitancy that could conceivably be shown by a disinterested secretary of
defense. Even then, he anticipated that there might be some leaks to the
outside quarters on his plans about martial law. Cleverly, he disguised his plans
as the contingency plan to cope with any emergency that might arise in the
country owing to economic difficulties and the unsettled conditions of peace
and order as influenced by external and internal factors. Members of the
National Security Council, which Marcos convened every now and then to
perorate on the contingency plan, were invariably told the threat of the rebel-
lious Communists were increasing continually. They were also “informed” that
Marcos had sent out pensionadoes to study “crisis governments” around the
world. What they were not told was that the pensionadoes were specifically
directed to study martial law situations abroad to help the President formulate
the steps he would have to take to justify the imposition of martial law in the
Philippines by 1972 or 1973.
Marcos’ assumption of the DND portfolio and his activities as defense boss
should have been a sufficient forewarning to the country’s leaders who have
greater respect for democratic ideals. At an early stage, when Marcos could
still be stopped or dissuaded, they might have realized that the newly-installed
chief of state was moving towards a situation that would justify his utilization of
the contingency plan, which was clearly the use of the military for, among
others, martial law. But the country’s leading politicians were pre-occupied with
standard political activities. They were more concerned with taking potshots
at Marcos and landing the front pages of the newspapers. They hardly gave
any thought to the danger that Marcos had started to create for them in
particular and for the entire country in general.
Preparations for the eventual imposition of martial law naturally meant
talking to men of the President’s confidence in the military establishment. While
he took up the contingency plan with the ranking armed forces generals, who
were not his appointees, Marcos quietly consulted with junior officers who
were “his men.” They were the colonels and majors who, in 1965, cautioned
their senior officers against allowing incumbent and reelectionist President
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Diosdado P. Macapagal to use the men in uniform to beat Marcos. They were
the junior officers whom Marcos had befriended in the years 1 950 to 1 957 when
they were fresh graduates of the Philippine Military Academy. Marcos made
them understand in 1966 through 1969 that they would be the “star” officers of
the armed forces who would travel the “heroic path” with him when the country
has become ripe for the authoritarian regime envisioned by him.
Senator Aquino, Jr. tried to ape Marcos. He also started befriending the
majors and captains in the military when he became a member of the upper
chamber of Congress. He figured that, by 1973, his “friends” would hold the
balance within the AFP to prevent his being cheated in his bid for the
presidency. Now these marked AFP officers are assigned to hardship posts,
mainly in the combat areas of Mindanao and Sulu, to do the fighting and dying
for Marcos’ New Society.
The martial law plan of President Marcos did not have any codename,
contrary to the general belief in the Philippines even before the advent of
Proclamation No. 1081 . When Senator Aquino exposed the martial law plan as
“Oplan Sagittarius,” Marcos grudgingly admitted that one of the steps
envisioned under the contingency plan was the imposition of martial law as the
occasion might demand. Even without this admission, however, there was
general belief that Marcos was really preparing to impose martial law as a
means of staying in power beyond December 30,1973. The big question was
when and how it was going to be imposed. So many leaders outside Marcos
circle of confidence found out about the “plan from AFP officers who were
probably “buying insurance.” One of them was former Mayor Villegas, who
forewarned Senator Aquino on August 19, 1972. Villegas advised Aquino to
either leave the country before the middle of September, 1 972, or to flee to the
hills. Villegas left for the United States a week later.
During the Aquino-Villegas meeting, the Tarlac senator cold-shouldered
the Villegas warning, saying that Marcos won’t attempt a martial law declaration
in view of the catastrophe which had just hit the country. Aquino was referring
at the time to the heavy flooding of Manila and the rice-producing areas of
Central Luzon.
“No, Tony, Marcos won’t do it now. Maybe a few months later!”’ the wonder
boy of Philippine politics declared diffidently.
Towards the first week of September, however, Aquino him-self obtained a
full copy of the so-called martial law plan which, he said, was codenamed
“Oplan Sagittarius." Aquino called in the press and talked about his discovery
of the martial law plan, omitting details for the moment. However, he aired a
threat that he would bare the essential details of “Oplan Sagittarius” in a Senate
speech he had scheduled for the afternoon of September 20, 1972.
There was consternation in the Palace that the martial law plan had leaked
out at a time when Marcos was not prepared to implement it. The President
hastily denied the existence of a martial law plan codenamed “Oplan
Sagittarius.” He did admit that the so-called “Oplan Sagittarius” was one of
several dummy contingency plans intentionally leaked out by him to test the
secrecy of the nation’s operational plans for an emergency and to detect any
source of leakage on “state secrets” to Senator Aquino.
Marcos was not worried at all about tracing the source of the leakage of
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
“Oplan Sagittarius.” He even let the word out that he had some particular
persons in mind as having leaked out the dummy plan to Aquino. Without
naming them, he alluded as possible sources of leakage to anyone of three
persons who, by Marcos’ description, were Lt. Gen. Rafael M. Ileto, the West
Point graduate who was then deputy AFP chief of staff; Brig. Gen. Jose L.
Rancudo, air force chief; and Col. Jimmy Zumel, a junior presidential aide and
brother of rebel propagandist Antonio Zumel. Actually, Marcos merely wanted
to confuse the situation further by pointing the finger of suspicion on several
persons. The moment Aquino mentioned the codename “Oplan Sagittarius,”
Marcos immediately determined the source of the leakage of his martial law
plan. He had given “Oplan Sagittarius” to only one man.
One of the best kept secrets of the martial law planning of Marcos was that,
when he had finalized the plan and he had come to a decision to impose it, he
distributed the copies of the plan in sealed envelopes to the military officials
and leaders of the intelligence community. He took great care and caution to
assign different Zodiac code-names to the copies he handed out to the would-
be martial law enforcers. The first letter of each code-name corresponded to
the first letter of the surname of the recipient. The copy that was code-named
“Sagittarius” went to Gen. Marcos Soliman, a Pampango who was the chief of
the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA). It was so easy and
convenient then to pinpoint Soliman as the source of Aquino. Thus, ranking
officers of the armed forces did not have to commit mental dishonesty when
they denied the existence of “Oplan Sagittarius.” They were not aware of any
game plan by that code-name. However, they did acknowledge to newsmen
that the contingency plan was the martial law plan itself.
There was a tragic postscript to the leakage of Soliman’s copy to Aquino.
A few days after the declaration of martial law, Soliman, a relative of Mayor
Villegas, was reported in the press to have died of a heart attack. The truth is
that he was shot dead by Metrocom troopers personally dispatched by
President Marcos to arrest and detain him at Camp Crame for “tactical inter-
rogation” for the leakage of “Oplan Sagittarius.” The general public noted,
however, that the President did not issue a message of condolence to the
general’s family. Last honors due a departed general were denied Soliman by
the armed forces; the Manila police department, which Soliman headed for
sometime during the incumbency of President Macapagal, was not allowed to
render him honors.
In preparation for the scheduled September 20 Aquino blast on “Oplan
Sagittarius,” Marcos called in the members of the AFP general staff to a
conference in Malacanang at about the time Aquino would forewarn the entire
country, especially the subversives, on the details of “Oplan Sagittarius” and
thereby tip off persons scheduled for the mass round-up.
The plan was to get the AFP general staff to “urge” the President to declare
martial law right then and there, if Aquino went through with his revelation of
the details of “Oplan Sagittarius.”
Earlier, in the morning of September 20, a Wednesday, the President
instructed me to prepare a story for advanced distribution to the reporters
covering the Malacanang beat. The gist of the story was that he the AFP
generals have urged him to avail of all constitutional means to cope with the
escalating Communist rebellion and the state or anarchy in the country; that
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
two less serious options allowed by the Constitution, namely, suspension of the
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus and calling out the troops to quell lawless
violence and disorder, have already been tried unsuccessfully. The message
in the story was clear. When I handed out the draft of the story as dictated by
Marcos to the other newsmen covering the Palace beat, they expressed alarm
and disbelief over the implication of the story. It was Francisco de Leon, of the
Manila Chronicle, who correctly read the meaning of the story. Manuel Salak,
of the Manila Times, was skeptical. Domingo M. Quimlat, of the Taliba, pulled
to one corner of the press office, and said: “Martial law na ito, ano?” (This is
martial law, isn’t it?)
By 5 p.m., still September 20, 1972, the story I had released earlier had to
be revised. Marcos called a rare press conference. He gave out a different
story. He revealed that he and the military commanders have met and
assessed the worsening peace and order situation, and they have agreed that
measures in effect then would be vigorously pursued by the armed forces to
reestablish peace and order. I was red in the face. Tatad was having his
vengeance against me for my “usurpation” of his functions as press secretary.
I had to call up the Daily Express desk to “kill” the story which I had sent out at
3 p.m.
Newsman De Leon stuck, however, to his analysis that martial law was in
the offing. Although he also “killed” the story which I had given him, De Leon
wrote the following day a news analysis for the September 22 issue of the
Manila Chronicle, Op-Ed page, stating categorically that martial law was in the
offing.
I was uneasy that evening of September 20,1 972. I decided to stay behind
in the Study Room when the President terminated the press conference.
Marcos owed me an explanation. On his way to his inner Study Room, he
beckoned to me to give me what I wanted. He explained that there was nothing
in the Aquino privileged speech to justify the story he dictated to me earlier in
the day. Aquino withheld the details of “Oplan Sagittarius.” The martial law
secret was still safe.
The imposition of martial law could wait another 24 hours or so. When
Marcos finally decided to impose martial law on September 22, 1972, he finally
sealed off from the Filipino his deceitful and treacherous activities for the
establishment of a Marcos royal dynasty in the Philippines. Started on
December 30,1965, those activities were reliant, however, on Marcos’ winning
a reelection in 1969.
Marcos won his reelection bid.
Former President Macapagal, reviewing Marcos’ strategy in that 1969
reelection campaign, sighed to his confidants: “If I had spent but just 10 percent
of the public funds President Marcos used for his election campaign in 1969, I
could have beaten him, hands down.”
In 1965, Imelda was the star performer in the crucial campaign against re-
electionist President Macapagal. She could have garnered the same credit in
the 1 969 Marcos reelection campaign but for the trinity of guns, goons and gold
which outshone her towards the last weeks of the election drive.
With victory secured by an over kill “win at all costs” reelection campaign,
Marcos felt so cock-sure that there was no way he would be stopped from ruling
in Malacanang for life. It would take a simple declaration of martial law “at least
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
one year” before the expiration of his second four-year term on December 30,
1973.
While he felt that he had solidified the support of the military for the intended
declaration of martial law, the action would undoubtedly be assailed as a
power-grab in the Philippines and abroad. He had to insure that he would be
able to function under a cloak of legitimacy, however flimsy the veil of legality
might be. Marcos had also seen to that. The spineless Supreme Court of the
Philippines has, as a matter of fact, over-dressed the martial regime with
legitimacy.
It is a sad historical fact to note that the final act of deprivation by Marcos
of the civil rights and liberties of the Filipino people was virtually given prior
clearance by the Supreme Court over a case that had the name of a man
named Miranda attached to it.
The backdrop of the Supreme Court’s virtual go-signal to Marcos to declare
martial law in the Philippines acquires a darker color when one recalls the
landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court on the Miranda case.
The U.S. Miranda decision broadened the civil rights of the accused in a
criminal investigation, of different circumstance and personality, the person
involved in the U.S. Miranda case probably had the same origins in Spain as
the man whose name got tangled up in an incident that became the “cause
celebre” for the staged imposition of martial law in the Philippines. The
Philippine Miranda was already a by-word among Filipinos even before
the case involving him cropped up. A small square had been named after him
and it was called Plaza Miranda.
Plaza Miranda is a two-acre public plaza in the heart of the City of Manila.
It is in front of the Quiapo church which, however, is not located in the district
of Quiapo, but in the area under the jurisdiction of the district of Sta. Cruz in
downtown Manila. Plaza Miranda was sometimes fondly called the Hyde Park
of the Philippines because it has ever-ready crowds of passersby and loiterers
before whom persons of various political persuasions and other diverse groups
could speak their minds off. The biggest political rallies are usually staged in
this square. It had become a tradition among the political parties to stage their
proclamation (of official candidates) rallies as well as their final mitin de avarice
on election eve at Plaza Miranda.
However, Plaza Miranda was not only a political forum. It was, and still is,
a favorite area of hawkers and ambulent vendors. The plaza is usually reserved
by City Hall authorities for the 48-hour period preceding All Saints’ Day for
special vendors who fill up the square selling wreaths and candles for
those who have to visit the cemeteries. During the Christmas season, shops in
and around Quiapo and Sta. Cruz put up entertainment shows every night for
the public.
The biggest show at Plaza Miranda comes up every January 9 during the
observance of the feast of the Black Nazarene, the religious patron of Quiapo
district.
Plaza Miranda gained notoriety in 1947 when a depressed barber, named
Julio Guillen, lobbed a hand grenade at an improvised platform where then
President Manuel A. Roxas and other leaders of the newly-installed Liberal
party administration were preparing to deliver speeches in favor of the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
ratification of the Parity Rights amendment to the Constitution.
In 1949, a man who wore dark sunglasses even at night stole the Plaza
Miranda stage to become an all-time crowd-pleaser with his colorful language.
He was Arsenio H. Lacson and he was the undisputed idol of Plaza Miranda
until his death on April 15, 1962.
In later days, the role of Plaza Miranda in Philippine political life was
immortalized by President Ramon F. Magsaysay. Whenever Magsaysay was
asked by the pressure groups for government concessions, he sought to apply
the test of public acceptance of the proposed deal by asking: “Can we defend
this at Plaza Miranda?” In time, this Magsaysayesque became anybody’s
challenge to the abuses and corruption that marked the Palace administrations
that succeeded the late beloved Magsaysay.
Marcos found an altogether different use for Plaza Miranda. It was at Plaza
Miranda where his anger over alleged insults to Imelda and his mother, Dona
Josefa Edralin, became the go-signal for his fanatical followers to massacre the
leadership of the opposition Liberal party. And it was as a consequence of the
failure to decimate the LP leadership that Marcos moved to cover up his
culpability, and thereby spawned the Philippines’ own “Miranda case” in 1971.
Before the Philippine Miranda case developed, Marcos had already had
almost six years to recast the complexion of the Supreme Court from that of a
sentinel of freedom against the abuses of the Executive Department to that of
an outright Marcos supporter.
Plaza Miranda literally exploded on the face of the nation in the evening
(about 9:30 p.m.) of August 21, 1971.
The tragic drama was earlier billed as a proclamation rally for the eight
official senatorial candidates of the opposition Liberal party for the mid-term
elections of 1971. Senator Aquino and other LP stalwarts, in addition to the
official candidates, were scheduled to address the rally.
Top billing was reserved however to a treasure hunter, Rogelio Roxas, of
Baguio City in northern Philippines. Roxas, who claims to have discovered
several pure-gold statuettes of Buddha among treasures buried by retreating
Japanese soldiers in Benguet, Mountain Province, was going to speak at the
Liberal Party rally. Roxas was prevailed upon by the LP leadership to air
publicly his complaint on how he not only lost the gold statuettes of Buddha to
Imelda and Dona Josefa but also became a defendant in a complaint for theft
of the statuettes in the sala of Judge Pio Marcos, in the Baguio City court of
first instance. Pio is an uncle of the President. Before the Plaza Miranda rally,
Liberal leaders as well as some stalwarts from Marcos’ own Nacionalista party
have already had a field day pillorying the President, the First Lady and Dona
Josefa for what had become the “Golden Buddha” affair. The more suc-
cinct indictment was uttered by former House Speaker Jose B. Laurel, Jr. who,
a few months earlier, had been deposed as House chieftain on orders of
Marcos, when he declared: “Artak ng Buddha!’’ It was a corruption of the
strongest condemnation a Tagalog can make of his fellow man. The accurate
epithet is: “Artak ng puta !” (Son of a Whore!)
Marcos was unable to make a sincere denial of the facts aired on the
“Golden Buddha” case. He did make a significant threat on his tormentors.
Marcos said he would make the people who “cowardly included my wife and
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
my mother in the political muckraking x x x pay for their ungentlemanly
behavior.”
Thus, when two Vietnam-war type fragmentation grenades were lobbed
and exploded on the stage where the entire LP leadership, except Senator
Aquino, was present on that fateful night of August 21 ,1 971 , the immediate and
unavoidable suspicion fell on Malacanang as the culprit. Rogelio Roxas was
about to speak when tragedy hit Plaza Miranda.
However, the “crisis management” expertise of Marcos got into the act
faster even than the Plaza Miranda grenade-throwers. Marcos secretly
suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, ordered the arrest of
student activists and alleged radical leftists who might be capable of organizing
nationwide demonstrations protesting the Plaza Miranda carnage, and directed
the National Bureau of Investigation to take over the investigation of the incident
from the Manila Metropolitan Police.
The announcement of, and the explanation for, the suspension of the
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus within a few hours of the Plaza Miranda
bombing, and the mass arrests effected throughout Sunday came more than
36 hours later. Even then, Marcos was already practicing the deceit he would
have to employ in the declaration of martial law one year hence. Marcos told a
press conference in the Palace at 3 p.m. on August 23, 1971, that he had
suspended the writ following the Plaza Miranda grenade-bombing. He
explained that, within minutes of the grenade-bombing, he sent queries to
government “deep penetration” agents within the ranks of the New People’s
Army. Marcos recalled that the same agents had been warning him about the
existence of a “July-August terror plan” of the NPA.
Upon his return to Manila three days after the incident, Villegas ordered an
intensified investigation of the incident, but the MPD was hamstrung actually by
another Marcos pre-emptive move by which the NBI was to handle the probe.
“The feedback I got was that the Plaza Miranda bombing was the beginning
of the implementation of the July-August terror plan,” Marcos declared. The
President quickly added, however, that his 'deep penetration agents failed to
indicate which NPA unit had done the Plaza Miranda job. He then proceeded
to explain that the writ had to be suspended in order to make it easier for
government law enforcement agents to question the suspects on the case and
to neutralize “misguided elements” who are still bent on lending aid and comfort
to the “enemies of the Republic.”
He said: “Persons connected with rebellion and the crime committed during
the political rally of the Opposition Party in Plaza Miranda have been
apprehended and are now undergoing interrogation. The military is now in
custody of these persons.”
If those guilty of the bombing of the Liberal leaders in Plaza Miranda have
indeed been apprehended, it would look like one of the longest investigations
in history. To this day, no one has been charged specifically with having
participated and/or engineered the grenade-bombing.
The absurdity of the President’s claim on the Plaza Miranda bombing was
further underscored by the position taken by Brig. Gen. Eduardo M. Garcia,
chief of the Philippine Constabulary, in a story on an interview he gave the
Journal of Commerce of New York. The interview story published by the Journal
on June 1 , 1971, quoted Garcia as having said:
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
“Insurgency and subversion are not serious problems of the government
now xxx.”
“In conclusion, the peace and order condition in the Philippines, now and
in the immediate future, is such as not to shake at all the stability of our existing
democratic institutions — political, economic, social and others.
Notwithstanding the occurrence at times of some crimes against persons or
property which usually result from unemployment and economic difficulties, and
from which no country can claim immunity, the inhabitants of the Philippines
sleep soundly in their homes, move freely and safely throughout the country
and initiate enterprises on which they place their hopes for better life.
“It can safely be stated that peace and order in the Philippines can stand
favorable comparison with other countries in the world.”
General Manuel T. Yan, armed forces chief of staff, also came out with a
statement that the grounds for the imposition of martial law did not exist.
Even as he blamed the Communist NPA rebels for the Miranda massacre,
Marcos’ psychological warfare apparatus went to work to smokescreen the still
persistent suspicion that the grenade-bombing was a crude attempt of
Malacanang to do in the opposition Liberals and silence Rogelio Roxas. Marcos
caused the floating of rumors that incumbent Manila Mayor Antonio
J. Villegas pulled the Miranda job in cahoots with Senator Aquino. After all, both
Aquino and Villegas were not in the rally; Aquino was on his way to the rally
from a late evening baptismal party when the grenades were thrown on the LP
stage. Another rumor was mongered around that Congressman Roque S.
Ablan, Jr., of llocos Norte engineered the grenade-throwing on his own “to
please President and Mrs. Marcos and Dona Josefa.” t
In mid-August, 1971, a cock-sure reelectionist Mayor Villegas, whom the
Liberal party bosses headed by Senator Gerardo Roxas denied for selfish and
personal reasons the mantle of official party candidate for mayor and who had
to seek reelection under the banner of his own independent Liberal party
faction in Manila — the “Liberal ng Maynila,” postponed his campaign and went
to the United States to enrol his eldest daughter, Ma. Teresita, at the College
of Notre Dame, and his son, Antonio, Jr., at the Bellarmine College Preparatory
in San Jose, California. He had just landed in Tokyo on his way back
to start his reelection campaign when he received a message on the Plaza
Miranda carnage and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas
corpus.
Brig. Gen. Gerardo S. Tamayo, chief of the Manila police department,
reported that all law enforcement agencies in the Greater Manila area, not
excluding the PC Metrocom, were caught by surprise by the incident. Vice
Mayor Felicisimo Cabigao, a Nacionalista like Marcos, who was acting mayor
in the absence of Villegas, bitterly shook his head, asking why the carnage had
to happen when he was at the helm at City Hall.
Upon his return to Manila three days after the incident, Villegas ordered an
intensified investigation of the incident, but the MPD was hamstrung actually by
another Marcos pre-emptive move by which the NBI was to handle the probe.
Villegas had no way, therefore, of fighting off the lingering suspicion that he
had something to do with the incident. The MPD could not make a conclusive
investigation on its own. He was fighting a losing reelection battle all of a
sudden. It was a sharp reversal of all pre-Plaza Miranda polls.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
On election day, the might of Villegas’ political machine which had won him
the elections of 1963 and 1967 could not stem the tide of a sympathy vote for
the Liberals who were almost massacred at Plaza Miranda. Among those
Liberals who profited from the sympathy vote was Congressman Ramon D.
Bagatsing, the official LP candidate for mayor who lost a leg in the bombing,
but won the mayoralty from Villegas.
Villegas decided to cool off in the United States. He left Manila on Jan. 1,
1972, the day Bagatsing was inaugurated as the new mayor. However, he
returned posthaste to Manila on Jan. 14,1972, when he was warned that
Bagatsing had Marcos cancel the parole of convicts Maximiano Magat and
Benigno Urquico, two of Villegas’ boyhood pals from his Tondo days, and
investigated in pursuit of the theory that Villegas commissioned the two to do
in Bagatsing during the August 21 rally. Ex-Mayor Villegas angrily demanded
in Manila that charges be filed against him so that he could clear his name. No
charge was ever filed in court on the Miranda carnage against anybody.
Later on, Villegas received a message from Urquico that police probers
working directly under Bagatsing and certain Muntinglupa prison officials tried
to induce two Muntinglupa prisoners to confess to the grenade-bombing —
which they did not commit — and to implicate Villegas and Lt. Col. Alfredo
Lim, a distinguished career police officer who has remained loyal to Villegas.
The theory, claim or rumor that Villegas plotted the Miranda bombing and
had two “imported goons” from Muntinglupa in itself renders it implausible. He
could not have been that stupid to import hit men from Muntinglupa, which was
controlled by Gen. Vicente Raval, a Marcos man, when he could have very
well offered such a job to any inmate at the city jail, which was under the control
of the Manila police under Villegas as mayor.
I still consider Villegas one of the smartest politicians the Philippines has
ever produced; he may still outmaneuver most of the active and “sidelined”
leaders of the country, including Marcos himself. Although he is in the United
States on a treaty investor’s visa, he considers himself a political refugee.
Villegas has not attempted to file for himself or any member of his family any
petition for permanent resident status, which he could very well do. He said he
expects to return when the Philippines “is freed from a dictatorship to which I
have been opposed and to which I have rendered civil disobedience by not
paying any income tax or availing of the tax amnesty offer of Marcos.”
I once had an occasion to confront my compadre, Congressman Ablan,
about the persistent rumor that he was responsible for the Plaza Miranda rally.
His answer was: “Padre, mahirap na lang mag-salita. (It’s dangerous to talk
now.) But you might take a cue from the still unsolved murder of Manong
Floring.” Ablan was talking about the late Congressman Floro S. Criso-
logo, of llocos Sur, who was shot in the back while receiving Holy Communion
inside the Vigan church one Sunday afternoon in November, 1970. Crisologo
was gunned down a few weeks after his much talked about confrontation with
President Marcos and then Colonel Fabian Crisologo-Ver, senior
presidential aide and commander of the Presidential Guard Battalion, over their
triangular tobacco monopoly in the llocos region. Floro had berated both
Marcos and Ver for grabbing the lion’s share of the proceeds of the tobacco
monopoly, while he who must face the guns of his political enemies while
attending to the mechanics of the monopoly is being treated as a minor
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
partner. Crisologo even threatened to expose the entire operations. His
subsequent reward was the silence of the grave.
With the least intention of playing detective, I casually tracked down the
lead on the Crisologo shooting in the faint hope that I might obtain any clue on
the Plaza Miranda bombing. In my casual talks with members of the presidential
security unit in the afternoons when Marcos would enjoy his siesta, I gathered
that the killer of Crisologo was “silenced” while trying to collect his “fee”, and
that the same fate had already befallen the Plaza Miranda bombers.
In both the Crisologo killing and the Plaza Miranda grenade-bombing, the
mad killers acted on orders emanating from a special unit of the then expanding
Presidential Security Command. To this unit also belonged Colonel Romeo
Ochoco, an air force officer, who led the explosives-hurlers at the United States
embassy compound in April, 1 972.
In the case of the Plaza Miranda carnage, as far as I have been able to
gather from the President’s security men, the instruction given to the grenade-
throwers was to “get Rogelio Roxas killed” to prevent him from talking about
the “Golden Buddha” for the first time before the nation on television. It seems
that they were left to their own devices on how to execute their assignment.
They obviously opted for hand-grenades which could be hurled from a distance
of relative safety.
The pre-emptive strikes of President Marcos on the Plaza Miranda incident
worked out very well. The arrest of student activist leaders and some radical
leftists deprived the mass movement of leadership in the meantime. The news
stories on the suspension of the writ crowded out of the front pages of the
newspapers statements of the opposition blaming Marcos for the carnage.
The opposition leaders, physically mangled and bed-ridden in hospitals,
could only scream in rage. Marcos the methodical politician smiled, hardly
betraying a sign of grief over the Miranda massacre.
The Miranda massacre was to offer Marcos another bonanza for his plan
to declare martial law. The added bonus was not entirely unexpected. Marcos
figured that sooner or later one or several of those arrested and detained
indefinitely by the military on charges of alleged subversion would file a
challenge to the constitutionality of the suspension of the privilege of the writ of
habeas corpus.
Eventually, 39 of those arrested filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus
with the Supreme Court, placing at issue Proclamation No. 889 by which the
President had suspended the writ on August 22,1971. Leading the challenge
to the validity of the suspension of the writ was Teodosio Lansang, a Philippine
College of Commerce professor who escaped to China and then Russia when
then President Elpidio Quirino suspended the writ for the first time in 1950.
Thus, the test case on the Marcos suspension of the writ was entitled “Lansang
vs. Garcia.” It was filed against then PC chief, Brig. Gen. Eduardo Garcia.* 4
Other detainees followed the Lansang suit.
(* 4 . The Supreme Court canes brought up bj way of challenge to Proclamation No. 889 were
docketed as G.R. Nos. L33964, D33965, L-33973, D33982, Lr34004, L-34013, L-34039, L34265
and L-34339.)
The challenge to the constitutionality of his suspension of the privilege of
the writ of habeas corpus was precisely the legal skirmish that Marcos wanted
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
in a battleground of his choice — the Supreme Court of the Philippines. By that
time, the high court was already dominated by Marcos appointees, namely,
Associate Justices Fred Ruiz Castro, Enrique M. Fernando, Claudio
Teehankee, Felix V. Makasiar and Antonio P. Barredo. Chief Justice Robert
Concepcion and Associate Justices Arsenio Dizon, Jose B.L. (JBL) Reyes and
Calixto O. Zaldivar were appointees of previous administrations. Castro,
Teehankee, Makasiar and Barredo were known as “independently pro-
Marcos operators,” while Fernando had ingratiated himself with the civil
libertarian group made up of Concepcion, Dizon, JBL and Makalintal.
When the smoke of battle over the habeas corpus cases had cleared,
democracy laid dying at the very doorstep of the Supreme Court. By a
unanimous decision that shocked the nation, the high court upheld Marcos.
Thus, through the Lansang and other cases that grew out of Plaza Miranda, the
Supreme Court of the land published its notorious edition of the U.S. Miranda
case in reverse. Once described as “the rock of our liberties,” the high court
chose, via the Plaza Miranda cases, to deliver the liberties of the Filipino people
to a nascent dictator.
The death of democracy in the Philippines should weigh heavily on the
conscience of the members of the Concepcion Court. It was their decision on
the Lansang cases that more than anything else assured a cloak of legitimacy
to the intended declaration by Marcos of martial law. This can best be
understood when one takes note of the fact that the grounds for the suspension
of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus are, by the provisions of the 1935
Constitution, exactly the same as those for the declaration of martial law. Thus,
when the martial law proclamation (No. 1081) itself was subsequently
challenged before the Supreme Court, the same Concepcion Court — this time
under pressure from a martial law administrator — had to uphold its own ruling
in the Lansang et al cases.* 5
(*5. See Chapter on “Spineless Judiciary Legitimizes a Pretender.”)
The Philippine Miranda case did not come so easily to Marcos. The petition
to invalidate Proclamation No. 889 was handled by a tough lawyer, Jose W.
Diokno, against whom the government’s Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza
was definitely no match. So, Marcos himself played the active role in winning
the case before the high court. What Marcos did would have been worthy of
citation as an example to history of deceit and trickery by a Chief Executive.
For Marcos that was normal. Through Justice Fernando, mainly, and Justices
Castro, Teehankee and Barredo, to some extent, President Marcos reached
out to the other members of the Supreme Court. Marcos conveyed his warning
that the very stability of the Republic was at stake in the Lansang challenge. A
defeat would be catastrophic. He reminded the justices that his term was
expiring in 1973, but reversal by the Supreme Court of his action would
weaken the Office of the President, whoever might be occupying it by 1974.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Fernando served as the main conduit of Marcos to the Supreme Court
justices.* 6 Fernando worked directly on Chief Justice Concepcion and
Associate Justices Dizon, JBL Reyes and Makalintal.
(*6. Justice Fernando angrily denied this during a symposium at the University of San
Francisco on Golden Gate Avenue. Fie used the word “stupid” in dismissing a question proposed
to him on this point by Antonio Garcia. When I subsequently contacted him by telephone at his
suite at the Sheraton Palace hotel on Market, where he had booked in the course of a few days’
stop-over in San Francisco, he talked softly to me and practically begged me to correct that
portion of my book. Fie explained that he was one of the dissenters in the decision on the Lansang
case. I was almost tempted to excise this portion of the book, but I reminded myself that the records
show that the decision on that case was “unanimous” and that Fernando's own brother-in-law,
practising lawyer Norberto Quisumbing himself had openly talked about the role played by the
good Justice in the making of that Supreme Court decision.)
Marcos sought to strengthen Fernando’s hand in talking to the liberals of
the Court by partially lifting the suspension of the writ in certain provinces of the
Visayas and Mindanao, loudly proclaiming that there was no longer any threat
of subversion in those areas. Slyly, he conveyed the message through
Fernando that he would make a total lifting of the suspension of the writ a few
days after the Supreme Court shall have handed down a verdict upholding
Proclamation No. 889. The message was loud and clear. The high court might
as well uphold him, or else the pending action would be rendered by Marcos
himself as “moot and academic” by simply lifting the suspension of the writ
before the Supreme Court could hand down its own ruling. That would then
deprive the justices of an opportunity to show their support for Marcos and of
the President of a favor to be repaid by him.
Perhaps, out of conviction or in a spirit of give and take with a President
willing to demean his office, or both, the members of the Court voted
unanimously to uphold the validity of the suspension of the privilege of the writ
of habeas corpus. How else could the Supreme Court justices account for the
fact that they relied so heavily on so-called intelligence report or evidence
compiled by the army and submitted as basis for the presidential decision to
suspend the writ’s privileges?
Of course, champions of the Concepcion Court would most likely point out
that the decision itself on the Lansang case opened a legal door of recourse for
those arrested and detained under the suspension of the writ. They could, the
court said, petition the Supreme Court for release. This sounded more like
the Supreme Court’s own way of warning Marcos that he should comply with
his commitment to lift the suspension of the writ as soon as the high court shall
have upheld Proclamation No. 889, or else, any of those detained persons
without charges will be released by the tribunal promptly. It was Senator
Lorenzo M. Tanada who took this cue from the high court. He threatened to file
another case in court questioning the continued suspension of the writ.
Complying with his commitment, Marcos announced on Dec. 31,1971, as
his New Year greeting to the Filipino people that he was restoring the writ
throughout the country, effective as soon as the Quezon City Court ruled on the
question of the legality of the arrest without warrant of persons accused of
violating the Anti-Subversion Act. The suspension, he announced, would be
lifted regardless of the decision of the court. The government was merely
waiting for the court to decide, he explained, so as not to make the decision
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
academic before it could be handed down. The decision was handed down by
Judge Felix Anover on Jan. 11, 1972, thus making the restoration of the writ
also effective that date. The decision was adverse to the government, and it
also adversely affected Anover when martial law was declared; he was one of
the first to be canned by Marcos.
The sinister aspect of the Supreme Court decision on the Lansang case is
the fact that the 1935 Constitution provided that the President, “in case of
invasion, insurrection, or rebellion, or imminent danger thereof, when the public
safety requires it x x x may suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus,
or place the Philippines or any part thereof under martial law.” The Supreme
Court ruled that the President acted within his rights in suspending the writ on
these constitutional grounds — the very same grounds enumerated by the
Constitution for the imposition of martial law. The high tribunal did not bother
to state, however, whether the rebellion or insurrection that goes on in the
country is the kind that calls for drastic measures as the suspension of the Bill
of Rights, or whether it actually jeopardizes public safety. The Court stuck to
the Latin principle of dura lex, sed lex. (The law may be harsh, but it is the law).
The Supreme Court did not take into account — a grave sin of omission to
history and the Filipino people — the consequences to democracy arising from
the suspension of the writ.
Marcos did take into account the significance of the high court decision in
relation to his martial law powers under the Constitution. Thus, when Marcos
fashioned out Proclamation No. 1 081 , he quoted freely from the judicial findings
of the high court in the Lansang vs. Garcia case. He had decided to exploit
and make hay out of the Supreme Court. He still allows the Supreme Court to
function under his martial regime for only one purpose — to cloak his
dictatorship with a semblance of legitimacy.
In the Lansang decision, the Supreme Court declared that it “cannot
hesitate, much less refuse — when the existence of such rebellion or
insurrection has been fairly established or cannot reasonably be denied — to
uphold the finding of the Executive thereon, without, in effect, encroaching upon
a power vested in him by the Supreme Law of the land and depriving him to
this extent of such power, and therefore, without violating the Constitution and
jeopardizing the very Rule of Law the Court is called upon to epitomize.”
The decision detailed the army evidence as alleged in the texts of Marcos’
Proclamation No. 889. So the main underpinning of the decision was the so-
called intelligence report or evidence compiled by the military and submitted as
the basis of the presidential decision to suspend the privilege of the writ of
habeas corpus. This was actually the most unsettling feature of the Lansang
decision.
Considered against the backdrop of the hearings on the notorious cases of
the Yuyitung brothers (Quentin and Rizal) who were the publisher and editor,
respectively, of the Chinese Commercial News, the Supreme Court decision
became a laughing stock for the weight that it gave to the military intelligence
report. The star witness in the Yuyitung hearings was an army officer who faked
his name on the witness stand. He produced a bundle of documents, marked
“secret,” and identified them as army intelligence “A-l” reports. He unscrambled
the military abracadabra by stating that the sign “A-l” meant reports gathered
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
by the army intelligence’s “most reliable agents.” In the middle of the trial, the
army “A-l” reports collapsed. Even the Immigration Commissioner who presided
over the hearings “A-l” reports. It was proved beyond reasonable doubt that the
army was compelled to throw out of court the whole bunch of army intelligence
evidence gathered by the army’s “most reliable agents” were pure fabrications.
The army “A-l” report charged that Quintin Yuyitung went to Sapang Palay
in Bulacan, north of Manila, to teach dwellers there Mao thoughts. The
president of the Philippine Historical Society, priests and religious sisters who
were there with Quintin testified that it was their group that invited and
persuaded Quintin to do gardening with them on weekends to demonstrate to
the poor in Sapang Palay the virtues of self-help. The army intelligence reported
that Quintin lectured at the University of the Philippines on the virtues of
communism. U.P. professors and students, including American exchange
students, testified that Quintin never lectured, much less touched on
Mao’s regime. He was invited there to be a resource person and asked to
provide his expertise on Chinese history.
According to the army “evidence,” Quintin financed student demonstrations
and had met with student leaders at the Manila Overseas Press Club. The
student leaders mentioned in the reports were called to the stand. Most of them
testified that they had seen Quintin at the hearing — for the first time. The
charge that Quintin financed the student demonstrations was so silly that even
the reporters present didn’t bother to report it.
The army report charged that Quintin’s newspaper was raising funds to
promote Maoist indoctrination of the Sapang Palay poor. It was proved during
the hearing that it was the Philippine Historical Society that initiated the fund
drive and the funds collected by the Chinese Commercial News went into the
construction of a medical clinic in Sapang Palay run by religious sisters. Before
the establishment of the clinic, Sapang Palay’s sick had to take a bus to Manila,
a good three-or-four-hour drive, to get medical care or hospitalizaton.
After all the army “evidence” collapsed, the military authorities produced
another report, an afterthought, that Quintin was a private banker collecting
money from the Chinese in Chinatown to be sent to their relatives on the
Mainland. It was so obviously a fabrication that even the professional witness
hired by the army was scared and kept ducking every time defense counsel
Juan T. David set his camera to take his picture.
The same military intelligence that manufactured the “dossier” on the
Yuvitung brothers was the same outfit that gathered “A-l” reports, gathered by
“the most reliable intelligence agents,” and held out as gospel truth by Marcos
before the Supreme Court. Such “A-l” report became the basis of the Supreme
Court’s headlong rush to hand over the civil liberties of the Filipino people to
Marcos.
In the Yuyitung hearings, the defense was allowed to examine the evidence
and cross-examine witnesses presented by the military — to the credit of
Commissioner Edmundo Reyes. In the Lansang cases, the Supreme Court
swallowed hook, line and sinker the so-called army intelligence reports. The
high court accepted the military “evidence” in a closed-door session that
excluded the general public, even the lawyers for petitioners Lansang, et al
thought that this was a violation of the Rules Rules of Evidence to accept as
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
gospel truth evidence offered by one side and not properly litigated in open
hearings.
While the Supreme Court admitted the “overwhelming evidence” of Marcos,
it did not even bother to take judicial notice of a very official statement of the
President that would have at least cast doubt on the “evidence” then offered to
support the suspension of the writ. This was the statement made by Marcos in
the course of his “State of the Nation” address before a joint session of
Congress on the fourth Monday of January, 1971. He said then:
“Last year, we broke the backbone of the Huk or HMB movement in Central
Luzon with the capture of Faustino del Mundo, alias ‘Commander Sumulong’,
and Florentino Salac, alias ‘Commander Ponting,’ and with the death of Pedro
Taruc, HMB chief, during a gunbattle with government troops.
“Successes against the New People’s Army were likewise significant. We
captured several NPA commanders and forced that organization to go into
further hiding. Our latest intelligence reports indicate a major dissension within
its ranks arising from some failures of its leadership.”
Initially, the Supreme Court showed a sign that it might just muster enough
courage to strike down the suspension of the writ.
The old decision was rendered in the case of Montenegros vs. Castaneda
which was an offshoot of the suspension by then President Elpidio Quirino of
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus under Proclamation No. 210 dated
October 22,1950. In the old decision, the Supreme Court washed its hands off
the suspension of the writ by Quirino and assigned sole responsibility to him for
the consequences of his acts. The Court declared in the Montenegro case that,
in accordance with the doctrine of separation of powers among the three
branches of government, it may not look into the act of the President in
suspending the privilege of the writ, pointing out that the President is in the best
position to know whether the constitutional grounds for the suspension exist.
The Montenegro decision was bad. For it placed beyond judicial scrutiny the
act of the President of suspending the privileges of the writ.
However, in reversing the Montenegro doctrine by inquiring very
superficially into the grounds availed of by Marcos for Proclamation No. 889
and eventually affirming the constitutionality of the suspension of the writ, the
Concepcion Court even took a backward step in its role as guardian of the civil
liberties of the Filipinos. What the Concepcion Court certainly did was to put its
stamp of approval on Marcos’ suspension of the writ, while not committing itself
on whether the President’s grounds for suspension were right or wrong. The
Supreme Court, in refusing to say whether the President was right or wrong in
suspending the privileges of the writ, placed the Filipino people completely at
the mercy of the President and declared that the President had acted within his
rights, thereby delivering all liberties into Marcos’ less than immaculate hands.
Had the Supreme Court reaffirmed its old decision and said that it had no
say, that it might not inquire into the grounds for the President’s suspension of
the writ, invoking the doctrine of separation — of absolute separation — of
powers, Marcos would have had to face adverse public opinion about his act
alone. The Supreme Court even supported him. And thus, the cases that grew
out of the Miranda bombing became an ugly and terrible reversal of the U.S.
Miranda case.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Shortly before the Plaza Miranda incident, Marcos’ seemingly inexorable
march towards dictatorship was signaled from Malacanang with the ouster of
Speaker Jose B. Laurel, Jr. from the premier House post. A political opponent,
but always a comrade in their unending struggle against presidential threats to
civil liberties, Congressman Justiniano S. Montano, of Cavite, southwest of
Manila, also fell from his pivotal post as House minority leader.
The ouster of Laurel and Montano was a well-executed Malacanang plot.
It was held out to be a necessary consequence of the fund scandal that rocked
the House of Representatives when Marcos surreptitiously transferred P69
million to the outlay of the lower chamber for use by congressmen in getting
pro-Marcos candidates for seats in the Constitutional Convention. Laurel and
Montano were accused by their respective party colleagues of allocating the
lion’s share unto themselves — not necessarily for their own personal
enrichment. However, no one ever believed that line when Marcos signaled the
replacement of Laurel by Congressman Cornelio T. Villareal, of Capiz province.
If Laurel and Montano had been in their respective vantage positions when
martial law was declared, they would not have so easily submitted to the
disbandment of Congress. They would have convened Congress on Jan.
24,1973, as mandated by the Constitution. As so well figured out by Marcos,
Villareal was not made of the stuff of a Laurel or Montano.
The ouster of Montano as House minority leader was very unfortunate. It
was even maneuvered by the so-called “Marcos Liberals” among the 17-man
Liberal group in the House of Representatives. When the “young Turks” within
his thinning LP group called on Montano to resign his post as minority leader,
the veteran Cavite lawmaker said he would do so only if nine of his colleagues
would vote against him. By a count made by a House reporter, Feliciano H.
Magno, only Congressmen Ramon V. Mitra, Jr., Jose V. Yap, Raul Daza,
Moises Escueta, John H. Osmena, Jose de Venecia, Neptali Gonzales and
Ramon H. Felipe voted to depose the “Tatang,” one vote shy of the nine
required. Congressmen Alfredo Lamen and Francisco Lecaroz stood by the
Cavite politico. However, when the counting was being conducted by Osmena,
Mitra sidled up to him and “ordered” him to report nine as having voted against
Montano. Mitra eventually succeeded Montano as minority leader and went on
to be elected senator in the November, 1971, elections.
The Laurel-Montano ouster was not the beginning of the fall from public
disregard of Congress as a governmental institution. It merely served to
heighten, however, the urgency of Marcos’ operation to erode the standing of
Congress as a rival seat of power. Rivalry or competition from another corridor
of state power was something Marcos told himself he would not be able to stand
for long.
Marcos’ task of eroding the power of Congress from his own vantage point
as President was rather easy. He himself had set the tone of corruption in
Congress when he held power therein as Senate President for more than two
years.
I was still covering him as a Senate reporter for the Manila Chronicle when
I observed how Senate President Marcos bloated the budget of the Senate and
of the Commission on Appointments so that he could draw funds therefrom for
his upcoming battle with President Macapagal. As early as that period, he
was already destroying Congress, at least his half of it, as an institution.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
With his second term well on the way, President Marcos started singing a
different tune. In his “State of the Nation” address before a joint session of
Congress in January, 1970, he boasted about the improved peace and order
situation, while he warned that the general situation was like a “social volcano”
that was about to erupt. The volcano virtually erupted on me faces of
Marcos and his wife on January 26, 1970, minutes after his speech before
Congress. Demonstrators, egged by agitators, and harassed by the
Constabulary riot control troopers, threw their placards at the President and the
First Lady, missing them by a hair-breadth as they prepared to enter their
limousine.
This was followed closely on January 30, 1970, by a more riotous
movement that ended at the gates of Malacanang which the demos tried to ram
with a firetruck commandeered from Manila firemen preparing to “shoot” at
them with water hoses. What followed was the so-called “Battle of Mendiola”
which pitted young boys and girls, armed with bamboo sticks and stones, facing
Armalite-wielding “shock troops” of Marcos from the Presidential Guard
Battalion. It was a massacre.* 7
(*7. Refer to Hermie Rotea's “I Saw Them Aim and Fire!”)
Since that time the whiff of revolution became clear and un-mistakable. But
very few knew that Marcos was instigating the unfolding revolutionary drama.
Military psychological warfare experts, employing trained Constabulary and air
force personnel, started cooking the books to make the data on the
impending revolution conform to the desires of President Marcos. The psy-war
experts staged, or instigated, violent demonstrations with only slight variations
in time, alternating between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. They established a pattern of
early evening demonstrations, which in later months became more violent, with
“demos” resorting to vandalism. By the third quarter of 1971, especially after
the Plaza Miranda grenade-bombing, the “escalation” included-sporadic
bombings, most of them being just too sophisticated as to leave no room for
doubt on their authorship. While Marcos was fighting his legal battle in the
Supreme Court on the constitutionality of his suspension of the writ a pipe of
the NAWASA (National Waterworks and Sewerage Authority) was badly
damaged by a home-made bomb, the gardens of two Nacionalista solons,
Senator Jose J. Roy and Congressman Eduardo Conjuango, Jr., were
damaged by explosives thrown by unknown hands.
The plot and pattern were so symmetrical and neatly executed that none in
Manila, except Malacanang and the Supreme Court, believed that it was the
Communists who did it and not the psy-war experts of the military. None was
even bruised during that “terroristic” bombing allegedly by the subversives
in the Greater Manila area.
“The army psycho experts,” quipped senatorial candidate and Rep. Mitra,
Jr., “should at least have seen to it that a dog or puppy got hurt in their bombing
operations of the gardens of NP solons to give some plausibility to their ruse.”
Elements of the Presidential Guard Battalion were among the most efficient
infiltrators and instigators of the student demonstrations that usually turned
violent.
While Marcos’ psy-war experts and “shock troops” were “implementing” the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
alleged Communist “terror plan and succeeding in creating a situation of
extreme anarchy in Manila to justify the declaration of martial law, two major
developments in the Constitutional Convention somehow derailed Marcos’
plans. There were early indications that the 320-man Convention might approve
a resolution to include in the proposed New Constitution a provision that would
ban any former President, his wife and relatives by affinity or consanguinity to
the fourth degree. This became known as the ban Marcos resolution. There
was even stronger indications that the Convention would preserve the existing
presidential system and throw out a Marcos-espoused shift to the parliamentary
form of government.
Now, martial law could not be imposed by Marcos, who always wants to
cloak his every unorthodox or unconstitutional moves with legitimacy, with the
unresolved problems in the Constitutional Convention. Without a shift to the
parliamentary system, Marcos would be barred from further seeking reelection
to the premier post of the land under the terms of the 1 935 Constitution. In order
to continue in power, he would have to field Imelda in the presidential elections
of November, 1973, He could not accept a situation where Imelda would be in
the forefront of political mudslinging, an expected bitter fight whose results
either would be unacceptable to Marcos. If Imelda loses, the two of them would
be out of power; if she wins, Marcos would be the unhappiest ex-President.
The possibility of the “ban-Marcos resolution” being adopted by the
Convention presented President Marcos with even darker prospects for a
contemplated “legal” martial law. If the ban resolution should be approved and
Marcos declares martial law as the only means to stay in power, the resort to
that drastic move would be completely devoid of any semblance of legality
and thereby appear as a naked power-grab.
No. Marcos would have none of the plans of the Constitutional Convention.
Marcos assigned Presidential Assistant De Vega the most delicate task of
maneuvering in the Convention to make the sovereign gathering conform to his
wishes.
At about that time, an old and respected delegate, a retired Ambassador,
began exposing a Convention “payola” launched in Malacanang Palace on
January 6, 1971, by no less than President Marcos and the First Lady. The
objective, according to Quintero, was to win the Convention delegates into
voting for the parliamentary form of government. Quintero was so maligned that
he later on found himself facing charges instead of the bribe-givers.
Anyway, De Vega succeeded in his mission to manipulate the Convention.
The perceptive presidential assistant got his due recognition from the First Lady
sometime in November, 1972, during a conference between the President and
the military leaders. At the time, the generals were gloating over the “wind-
falls” that martial law has brought unto their lives. The First Lady interrupted the
meeting to quip: Pasalamat kayo at mayroong Gimo de Vega. Kung Hindi siya
nag-maniobra sa Con-Con upang matalo ang ‘ban-Marcos’ resolution, wala
tayong ‘1081’ ngayon.” (You people should be thankful that we have a
Gimo De Vega. If he had not successfully maneuvered in the Constitutional
Convention, there won’t be any martial regime that you are enjoying today.)
The maneuver of Secretary De Vega in defeating the ban-Marcos move
and obtaining Convention approval of the shift to the parliamentary system was
simple enough: massive spending to buy off wavering delegates and to stay
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
“bought.” De Vega’s resources were unlimited. He had the full authority of
President Marcos and the First Lady to draw any amount he needed from the
“special fund” set up for him by Internal Revenue Commissioner Misael P. Vera.
In fairness to De Vega, he accounted for every centavo he disbursed to the
delegates-for-sale. And made sure that the error of Delegate Venancio Yane-
za in withholding a F5, 000-envelope intended for Delegate Quintero was not
repeated. It was said at the time that Quintero received an empty envelope in
the presence of the President in Malacanang on January 6, 1971.
The waves stirred by De Vega’s “Operation Con-Con” was a spectacle to
behold. Lousy with money, the delegates would squander their ill-gotten wealth
in the plush restaurants and nightclubs, some in the legally-tolerated casinos
along Roxas Boulevard. Some would gamble with just pieces of paper that,
when presented by the casino operators to De Vega’s lieutenants in the
Convention, were immediately redeemed. The delegates were paid in full for
selling their votes to Marcos. This is probably the reason Marcos has no qualms
of conscience at all when he maintains in an indefinite suspended animation
the interim National Assembly where the Con-Con delegates are supposed to
be members, too.
The ban Marcos resolution was really a most popular proposal. All things
being equal, it really should have been adopted despite the paid and loud
protestations of Delegate Antonio Tupaz that it was perpetual condemnation
without trial of an entire family (the Marcoses) to the ignominy of perpetual
disqualification from the presidency. All logic pointed to the ban-Marcos
resolution’s approval. The spirit of the proposal was itself enshrined in the
Constitution that the President should hold no more than two terms.
Like the ban-Marcos proposal, the proposal to retain the presidential
system stood a strong chance of being approved overwhelmingly. A total of 1 06
delegates ran and won on the platform of “no reelection for Marcos” and
“retention of the presidential system.” Later, they were joined by 97 more dele-
gates. Originally, therefore, only about 1 00 delegates favored the parliamentary
system and rejected the presidential reelection ban.
But the anti-Marcos forces lost in the final vote because of the cockiness of
delegates like Jose Mari Velez, the over-confidence of others like Sedfrey
Ordonez. Most of them thought that, by embarrassing Marcos on the Quintero
expose, they would get all the delegates to think that Marcos is such a
repugnant and repulsive man that all delegates would just vote for the ban
resolution and the presidential system. They failed to reckon with the corrupt
mind and unbridled appetite for money of the unprincipled delegates and the
vast resources made available by Ferdinand and Imelda to De Vega.
As Gimo was maneuvering brilliantly in the Constitutional Convention,
Marcos kept hammering without let-up on the Communist bugaboo. Five days
after the Supreme Court handed down its decision on the Lansang case, on
December 11,1971, Marcos summoned 1,000 newly-elected officials to listen
to his lecture on the alleged Communist plans for the rural areas. He told them
that the subversives have established “rural sanctuaries in the provinces in a
move to expand their influence and pave the way for a Communist take-over of
the country.”
“It is now obvious that the subversives are implementing the original
program of the Communist Party of the Philippines to erode the faith and
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
confidence of the people in their leaders and government so that they will no
longer resist the Communists,” the President said.
By the end of the year 1 971 , Marcos had become an expert in manipulating
Congress, utilization of the armed forces, management of the news and
mobilization of the barrios. The Supreme Court also opened itself to Marcos’
full exploitation upon the promulgation of the Lansang vs. Garcia decision.
There was only one more dramatic thing to do before Marcos would declare
his well-infrastructured martial regime. The demonstrations and terror
bombings were not being swallowed whole by a skeptical public. Some flavor
of mystery had to embellish the tale of a revolutionary situation gripping the
country.
Marcos Bureau of “Plant” Industry went to work. This time the psycho war
apparatus of Marcos geared itself for the most difficult task in “crisis
management” of the country. The armed forces weapons supply center at
Camp Aguinaldo and the news media were called into play.
First, it was a submarine. Then, it was a “mystery ship” which allegedly
unloaded military hardware and other supplies, including foodstuffs and
subversive documents, supposedly for the New People’s Army.
The report about the mysterious submarine allegedly came from Col.
Rosendo Cruz, with headquarters in Camp Upi, Gamu, Isabela, on May 30,
1972, unloaded its cargo, then sailed away on June 1, supposedly with some
passengers. The cargo allegedly discharged by the unidentified U-boat
consisted of some 200 passengers, firearms and other supplies.
On June 30, or exactly one month to the day after the reported submarine
landing, Brig. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, PC chief, made a flying visit to Palanan,
but failed to get confirmation on the alleged submarine landing. The PC then
wrote off the intelligence report about the submarine as without basis.
Then came another intelligence report also from Palanan. The report was
about a “mystery ship” marked MB Karagatan” which supposedly dropped
anchor off Digoyo Point, Palanan, on July 2,1972. The name “Karagatan”
appeared to have been painted over the words, “No. 18 Flakuryu Maru” which
seemed to be the old name of the vessel. The “mystery ship” unloaded shortly
after midnight of July 4 military hardware, including the latest type of automatic
weapons, and other supplies.
The unloading operation was still going on when a seaborne PC patrol
arrived at the scene and proceeded to board the “mystery ship.” The seaborne
patrol found the vessel seemingly abandoned because there was nobody
aboard. However, the members of the patrol also found that there were still
substantial quantities of supplies aboard the ship. It was surmised that the
members of the ship’s crew were in the process of unloading the cargo when
the PC seaborne patrol arrived at the scene and unwittingly disrupted the
unloading operation. When the PC seaborne patrol was trying to go back to the
motorboat to head for shore, the soldiers were fired upon by unidentified armed
men deployed along the beach. The volume of fire from the beach was such
that it could have been delivered only by a force much larger than the seaborne
patrol. The outnumbered PC soldiers were pinned down aboard the “mystery
ship.”
Meanwhile, a PC combat patrol led by Lt. Edgar Aglipay of the 119th PC
Company was dispatched to the scene of the reported landing. While Aglipay
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
and his men were reconnoitering the area, they were fired upon by unidentified
armed men whom they immediately presumed to be NPA guerrillas. Some
members of the PC combat patrol were reported to have been wounded in the
sharp skirmish. A report from Bng. Gen. Tranquilino Paranis, commander of
Task Force Saranay, said that the PC patrol found scattered along the beach
some raincoats, hundreds of empty sacks, food supplies and documents in
Chinese characters.
Reinforcements were sent for both for the seaborne patrol which was
pinned down in the “mystery ship and for the beleaguered combat patrol of Lt.
Aglipay along the beach. Two Philippine air force helicopters sped to the scene
with augmentation troops as well as food supplies and ammunition. One of
the helicopters was fired upon as it approached the combat area and one of its
rotor blades was hit by ground fire. The chopper, piloted by Lts. Manecio
Reventar and Domingo Lagos, was able to limp back to its base in Echague,
Isabela, where the headquarters of Task Force Saranay are located.
When the smoke of “battle” cleared, only the government could account for
its casualties. There was no sign of any casualty on the part of the alleged NPA
rebels, despite the government claim that the NPAs retreated to the forests in
disarray. However, the government claimed to have captured the following:
— More than 500 M-14 and M-16 rifles, some Garands and Browning
Automatic rifles;
— More than 60,000 rounds of ammo for both M-14 and M-16 rifles;
— Thirty boxes of M-79 ammo for grenade launchers; and
— An NPA camp with 1 5 huts.
It was claimed that the guns captured by the government forces bore no
patent number, no name or manufacturer, and no country of origin.
Naturally, there were no identification marks on the captured weapons.
They were obliterated at special headquarters set up by elements of the
Presidential Guard Battalion in Digoyo to where the weapons were taken direct
from the AFP Supply Center.
The “large force” that gave battle to the PC patrols were actually elements
of the PGB. They were assigned to do the “planting” job. Being the elite of the
military, the PGB personnel dispatched to Digoyo to set up another
infrastructure for the declaration of martial law naturally proved better in combat
with the less proficient PC combat patrol of Gen. Paranis. Most of the members
of the PGB unit assigned to the Digoyo special operations are still alive, some
of them have been killed in operations against the NPAs in the Bicol region.
Some of the “Digoyo veterans” among the PGB personnel have talked to me
about their Palanan adventures.
The “landing” of weapons and ammo by the Presidential Guard Battalion
was eventually tied up with the faking of an ambush of the official car of
Secretary of National Defense Juan Ponce Enrile on the night of September
22, 1972. PGB troopers who “ambushed" Enrile on Wack Wack Road in
Mandaluyong, Rizal, used ammo taken from the same stockpile that was made
available for the “Digoyo operations” to lay down the final excuse for President
Marcos’ declaration of martial law in the Philippines.
The “crisis management” apparat of Marcos even implemented a project
that called for weather modification in order that extraordinary heavy rainfall
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
would hit the Greater Manila area during the months of July, August and
September. The project was, in a sense very successful. However, heavy rains
hit not only the Greater Manila area, but the entire island of Luzon in what is
now known as the catastrophic July-August floods of 1972. The Philippines'
worst storm season in 50 years inflicted serious damage to agriculture,
communications and homes.
Earlier, in 1968, the “crisis management” apparatus of Marcos embarked
on one of Marcos’ original plans for setting up an intricate web of excuses for
the essential imposition of martial law by 1972. This involved the projected
armed aggressive involvement of the Philippine government in the efforts of the
heirs of the Sultan of Sulu (Kiram family) to recover the rich Sabah territory from
the Federation of Malaysia.
It was a two-pronged program. The projected aggressive recovery of the
disputed territory could itself create an emergency situation for the entire
country to constitute a sufficient reason for the proclamation of martial law.
But Marcos was not going to be entirely averse to the actual addition of
Sabah to Philippine territory. At the time, he was envisioning the former British
crown colony as the Philippines’ own glorious colony, to form part of an empire
over which he would rule personally for life and through his son, Ferdinand,
Jr., even from the grave.
The Borneo recovery program was codenamed “Project Jabidah.” But the
project fell not only of its own corrupt weight, but also because of the ancillary
corruption, quite naturally involving the disbursement of funds from the defense
department.
But the worse was yet to come. Marcos had to answer a congressional
inquiry. Subsequently, the government of the Federation of Malaysia, which
had infiltrated “Project Jabidah”, without having to blow the cover of its
infiltration agents, was accorded the most official confirmation on the program
of Marcos to invade, with Muslim special troopers, and eventually annex Sabah
with the Philippine Republic. The confirmation came in the denunciations made
on the floor of Congress by Senator Aquino, Jr. and the subsequent
investigations conducted by congressional committees.
Without admitting its counter-attack on Marcos, the government of
Malaysia not only broke off diplomatic relations with the Marcos government,
but also instigated the Muslims to rebel against the central Manila government,
reviving in them the age-old Muslim opposition to Christian domination and
other valid grievances of the Filipino Muslims against the central government
in Manila. This came at about the time when the Mindanao Independent
Movement was formed, with Datu Udtog Matalam as the moving force. It has
since been taken over by younger elements of the more radical variety.
Now that the internal problems involving the Muslim Independence
Movement have tied Marcos’ hands, there is less emphasis on his plan for a
union with Sabah. It is unlikely that the military would want to jump to his bidding
on such a major military undertaking, nor that it has anything remotely like
the military strength for such a venture. As it is, the military cannot even cope
with the rebellion of the Muslims. But, one shudders to think of the possibility of
a Marcos conquering Sabah for a new empire in Southeast Asia. The entire
plot seems like a nightmare, but other dictators have had equally wild dreams
before.
Primitivo Mijares Page 142.
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Chapter VI
The Other Villains
The unerring judgment of history would easily condemn Ferdinand E. Marcos
with having, at the discerning age of 55, pulled the trigger that snuffed out the
life of democracy in the Philippines by his declaration of martial law on
September 21, 1972.
Whatever might be the attenuating circumstances, history will hold Marcos
accountable for the dictatorship (circa: 1972-197?) that inexorably followed his
proclamation of martial law. To be sure, Marcos is already compiling volumes
addressed to historians to show that his decision of September 21,1972, was
a “great and heroic” one for the Philippines.
There is very little dispute indeed about the validity of an oft repeated
statement that before the proclamation of martial law, the Philippines was a
“sick society.”
In his second book. Notes on the New Society, published on the occasion
of the first anniversary of the martial regime, Marcos stated:
“I am, to be sure, accountable to history for 21 September 1972 when I
signed the proclamation placing the entire Philippines under martial law. And
yet solely and completely responsible as I am for this decision, I cannot escape
the sense that events, the thrusts of history, and even the will of the people,
somehow guided my hand to the deed.”
True, the Philippines was in such an awful mess that the common man
despaired over the situation. It was a challenge to the country’s leadership to
avail of the bargaining process so necessary in a democratic society to harness
all the energy coming from the various sectors of the national fabric. Marcos
did not see it fit to accept the challenge. He chose the path of authoritarianism,
with an eye single to perpetuating himself in power. He preferred to use the
boundless energy of his people as an excuse to declare martial law over the
entire country.
Indeed, there were many facets of Philippine life that “guided” Marcos’ hand
to declare martial law. In their totality, however, they did not constitute a
compelling reason for a man — and his No. 1 woman — to clamp down a
dictatorial rule over the Filipino people.
Long before Marcos declared martial law, distribution of wealth and income
in the Philippines was lop-sided. It was and is still the central problem of the
nation. Such was the situation even before Marcos became President of his
country in 1 965. However, no President before Marcos ever thought of callously
exploiting this situation to justify a resort to martial law.
While the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few became a favorite
Marcos topic to rally the impoverished behind him and his plans to seize power,
Marcos himself got frantically busy acquiring wealth from the advantageous
perch of the presidency so he could belong to the nation’s grouping at the
top of the pyramid controlling the bulk of wealth in the Philippines.
In other areas of national life, there was much to be desired. The press was
free but often irresponsible. The courts were slow, too technical and sometimes
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
corrupt. Congress was a do-nothing assembly whose members were more
concerned with getting reelected, making lots of money and taking care of
private armies. The students and labor leaders had taken to demonstrations
and rallies and marches, marked by inflammatory rhetoric and sometimes
marred by violence. There was a system of separation of powers among the
three branches of government, with its built-in device of checks and balances.
A President impatient to get things done his way viewed this inter-play of forces
and interests as exercises in non-government. There were elections that most
everybody called a mockery because of the employment of guns, goons and
gold.
Admittedly, the undue concentration of wealth in the hands of a few was at
the core of the entire gamut of problems facing the nation. Massive poverty,
unemployment, malnutrition, crime and disease, political corruption, agrarian
and urban unrest, ignorance and superstition, are among its most obvious
manifestations.
Social order has been a myth in some regions ever since the end of World
War II. Private armies, led by notorious political warlords close to the center of
power, terrorized the people in the provinces as late as 1972. Gun-smuggling
was an open scandal.
Graft was rampant and devotion to public service an exceptional virtue. A
remarkable aspect of the political process in the Philippines is that the principal
issue in every national election since the Philippines became independent in
1 946 was “graft and corruption.’’ Corruption permeated not only the government
but every aspect of the national life, including private business and industry, the
professions, the labor unions and the mass media.
Though there were some political figures whose integrity could not be
doubted, the run-of-the-mill politician was neither credible nor respectable.
Corrupt, demagogic, and extremely partisan, he furnished a cogent reason for
radical change.
Even delegates to the sovereign Constitutional Convention called to
introduce sweeping and fundamental structural changes in the government and
society proved no better than the politicians in Congress. They accepted bribes,
too.
The “freest press in Asia” which became the distinction of Philippine mass
media was irresponsible and corrupt. This indictment is directed more at the
publishers and not the working journalists who tried to make Manila’s free-
swinging mass media lively and readable, and represent various shades of
public opinion. Owned by oligarchs and vested interests, pre-martial law mass
media were definitely used by their owners and publishers to espouse political
views and preserve or expand political and economic interests. To own and
operate a tri-media (newspaper, radio and TV chain) establishment became
a consuming ambition of the wealthy and the powerful who have learned their
lessons from the late Don Eugenio Lopez, Sr. and his brother, Fernando,
presidential aide Hans Menzi, the Sorianos (Jose and Andres), and the
Elizaldes. Marcos himself belatedly (in relation to his constitutional term in
office) established overnight his own tri-media (Daily Express and the Kanlaon
Broadcasting System’s radio-TV network) through Roberto S. Benedicto with
funds borrowed from the Philippine National Bank, of which Benedicto was
president at the time the huge borrowings were made. The tri-media proved to
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
be a potent weapon for waging political campaigns and extorting
concessions from any occupant of Malacanang. As for the working press, a
number of newspapermen were known to be on the payroll of ranking officials
in government and of key figures in private business. Some of them became
scandalously affluent. While insuring their economic security, most newsmen,
however, managed to render distinct public service by directing the spotlight on
multi-million peso deals and big-time rackets which seemed to proliferate with
every new Administration.
The kindest thing that might be said on Marcos’ declaration of martial law
was that the various forces at work in the Philippines, which are normal under
a democratic set up, lend themselves for exploitation by a man looking for any
number of excuses to cloak his seizure of power with any semblance of legality.
The “freest press in Asia” no doubt contributed greatly to the forces that
goaded Marcos to run berserk and declare martial law. Perhaps reflecting the
general sentiment of the people at the time, the mass media practically told
Marcos that he no longer fits into the social milieu even before the expiration of
his constitutional term. He was that bad. A skunk of the first order. The din of
criticism against Marcos was deafening.
In his own book, Today’s Revolution: Democracy, Marcos reproduced
portions of editorials and columns in the Manila Chronicle, the Philippines Free
Press and the Weekly Nation which he considered provocative enough for him
to impose martial law. He wrote:
“I will let the citizen-reader judge for himself whether the supreme end
of free and untrammeled criticism, the illumination of events and the
search for truth, is served by these remarks from a column in the Manila
Chronicle:
‘Finally, Mr. Marcos, playing the favorite trick of every scoundrel,
poses as a martyr and tells all of us that in spite of constant attacks on his
honest, hardworking and great person, he will allow the press its freedom
and will not do anything to abridge freedom of speech.
‘First of all, if Mr. Marcos feels he is that powerful and summons that
much popular support, why doesn’t he try putting an end to freedom of
speech in this country?
The answer to this question is obviously that even in his
insufferable arrogance, Mr. Marcos realizes that the Filipinos value
freedom of speech as much as they value life and if they did not surrender
this to the succeeding Spanish, American and Japanese conquerors, they
certainly will not surrender to him.’
“Or take these editorial from the same paper.
‘As President of a supposedly civilized Republic, Mr. Marcos should
not adopt the tactics and manners of a blackmailer. As a lawyer, he knows
the value of a dossier, and he knows that to use it against any man is
simply to threaten him.’
“And after the Plaza Miranda grenade-throwing incident:
‘But. . . the moral responsibility for the nameless disgrace that fell on
the Filipinos the other night must be traced to none other than President
Marcos ... it was he who set the tone of intransigence in the current
electoral campaign . . .
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
‘ . . The President must answer, but when he does, must bear in mind
the pain and the agony of the victims of the violence which he, in the
privacy of his conscience and in the inclosure of the confessional, must
admit he alone has generated.’ x x x
“There are other instances, so innumerable that I can pick a few at
random:
‘On the other hand, how can he bear being President — and the most
hated or despised man in the country. If we have to stand him, okay, but
how could he stand himself? He’d smell. And if he smelt to the nation, how
could he close his nose to the odor? One of the punishments of hell so
vividly described in spiritual retreats, which aim at grace through terror, is
the subjection of the damned to all the Gadawful smells that the fanatical
imagination can conjure up. Marcos would smell to high heavens, if he did
not earn the respect of the people instead of their hatred and contempt..’
(Philippines FreePress)
“Or:
‘President Marcos is not an ordinary politician. He and his Queen
Elizabethan wife are a pair of power-grabbers. The duo are crazed with an
almost Sybaritic dream for power and material benefits. What are a few
dead citizens and mangled peers? What is to them the fate of wives of
senators who may never walk again? Our photographer may lose an eye
in the process of public service. He is Juanito Gullas. Can the suspension
of the writ assuage the hurt of the widow and ten children of Ben Roxas of
the Manila Times?’ * 1 C"* - Ben Roxas ’ a photographer, was one of those killed in the
Plaza Miranda grenade-bombing.)
“The last passage is from the Weekly Nation, owned and published by
the father-in-law of the president of the opposition party.” * 2
(*2. The publisher was J. Amado Araneta who now lives in exile in New York.)
And yet most of the mass media owners and writers, and other contending
forces all helped, and contributed money generously to Marcos’ campaign for
the presidency in 1 965, and in 1 969. They did for Marcos in 1 965 and 1 969 the
very things that, in 1970 through 1972, the Malacanang occupant interpreted
as a conspiracy to overthrow the Republic. Their actions from 1970 through
1972 admittedly far exceeded their efforts for Marcos in 1965 and 1969.
Perhaps, the greater intensity of their pronouncements and actuations were
called in view of their perception that Marcos won’t give up Malacanang easily
— and now he doesn’t want to give it up at all.
Marcos even sought and obtained the electoral support of the Moscow-
oriented Hukbalahap rebels for the 1965 and 1969 presidential campaigns.
All these groups rallied behind his battle cry “This Nation Can Be Great
Again.” Little did they realize that it was the same battle cry of Hitler before he
burned the reichstag and rode the autobahn to Germany’s dictatorship.
When the diverse groups which supported Marcos started either collecting
the Marcos lOUs or pressing him for the vital government reforms needed to
make the nation great again, the President cried that they were either in
rebellion or were constituting themselves into pressure groups around the
presidency. He ungratefully rejected them in this wise:
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Page 146
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
“The presidency is not designed for enduring friendships, for it attracts
temporary allies. And the sentiments that the Office generates depend on
favors that it confers.
“It is easy to put this down as the curse of our political system, but only the
man who has become President knows that the Presidency must avail itself of
the talents, skills, and influences at hand in order to pursue a policy or
implement a national project.”
Marcos tried hard to throw off the accusation that he was an ingrate in his
relationship with Don Eugenio Lopez. Without the Lopez millions and tri-media
which went all-out for Marcos in the 1965 battle for the presidency against
Macapagal, Marcos would have met a sudden political death in that pivotal
electoral contest. And the first thing Marcos and Imelda did was to nail down
Eugenio Lopez, and his brother, Vice President Fernando Lopez, “the biggest
oligarchs among oligarchs blocking government reforms.”
The fatal mistake of the Lopezes in their dealings with Marcos was that they
assumed that the llocano politician would turn against his benefactors. So, they
simply went about twisting Marcos’ arm for government concessions so
necessary for the expansion of their politico-economic empire. They tried to
avail of their political influence even under the Marcos I era to further their
economic horizons without even hinting to Ferdinand and Imelda that they
would have a “share” in their expanding enterprises.
Quid pro quo was the principle by which Marcos started operating from the
vantage point of the presidency. I give that you may give. He was not adverse
to granting government concessions provided that he got a substantial kick-
back later on. This was the way he dealt with all those favor-seekers or
temporary allies attracted by the presidency.
The Lopezes would have none of this give and take arrangement. Besides,
most of their enterprises were closed family corporations that could not admit
someone like Marcos who could gobble the entire Lopez clan overnight. Even
Eugenio (Geny) Lopez Jr. who had started taking active command of the Lopez
business empire by 1 965 took the position that the Lopezes have already given
so much to Marcos before the elections and even after his ascension to
Malacanang.
“No,” Geny once said, “we should not yield any more to that s.o.b.”
Marcos stood his ground. The President confided to Secretary Clave that
he was declaring war on the Lopezes. He outlined the pattern of attack that
would be followed against the Lopezes. Marcos had to resort to this because
he knew very well that the Malacanang reporters would deal with Clave in
digging out background materials for the Palace onslaught against the
Lopezes. Press Secretary Tatad was too unsophisticated, too shallow to handle
the kind of propaganda war Marcos had in mind waging against the Lopez
oligarchy.
The thrust of the onslaught against the Lopezes was going to be a take-off
from the attack which a former President, Diosdado P. Macapagal, waged
against the Lopez empire. In 1962, Macapagal pinned the label of “vested
interest on the Lopezes. Marcos, in 1971, decided to stigmatize the Lopezes
as constituting an oligarchy exercising undue influence on the political
authority, i.e. President Marcos. He would borrow the lines of Aristotle and Plato
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
to the effect that oligarchy and democracy are conflicting forms of government;
that the historic conflict between oligarchy and democracy is over political
privileges of wealth, the rights of property and the protection of special interests.
He would label the Lopez oligarchy as the very antithesis of Philippine
democracy. Marcos would harangue the Lopez oligarchy’s pursuit of a political
culture in the country that equates freedom with self-aggrandizement, and the
politics of participation, so essential in a democracy, with cornering of privilege.
He would vilify the Lopezes with permeating their oligarchic values through the
control of the means of mass communication, such as the Manila Chronicle,
the daily newspaper, and the three television channels and 21 radio stations
which constitute the Lopez tri-media complex. He would crucify the Lopezes for
utilizing the mass media as a weapon to make government a convenient
scapegoat for the social economic ills of the country which the oligarchic society
had spawned in order to blackmail the presidency for more and greater
privileges and concessions.
The epic Marcos-Lopez war was on. There was nothing that either Clave
or I, or the two of us combined, could do to make the two giants call off the
headlong confrontation. Marcos announced that the presidency would be
utilized by the Lopezes as conduit for the entrenchment of the oligarchs; the
Lopezes fired back that Marcos was raising an imaginary windmill in order to
conceal his real plans of setting up a dictatorial government.
What followed are miscalculations after miscalculations on the part of both
antagonistic parties. Vice President Lopez resigned his position as Secretary
of Agriculture and National Resources in the Marcos Cabinet. Marcos didn’t
figure on the Vice President exemplifying the Spanish delicadeza by resigning.
But, when Lopez did resign, Marcos readily accepted it, saying that he would
have fired Lopez if the Vice President had not done so.
The Lopezes resorted to the time-tested weapon of using their tri-media
establishment to mercilessly attack Marcos for what he really is — a corrupt,
abusive and arrogant political President. In the Manila Chronicle, cartoonist
Liborio “Gat” Gatbonton created a series of cartoons all directed at Marcos,
asking such questions as “Who is the richest man in Asia today?” or “Who gets
all those kickbacks from government loans?” In the process, the epic political
confrontation between Marcos and Lopez spilled out to rain darts and arrows,
too, on the First Lady, Mrs. Marcos.
Largely on account of Imelda’s prodding, Marcos pressed on his attack
against the Lopezes. Actually, the initial Marcos blast and ensuing follow-up
assaults on the Lopez bastion by Marcos were pressed on the President by his
meddling wife. The talk was that Marcos personally did not wish to turn
against the Lopezes and be branded an ingrate. However, Imelda was insistent.
She wanted the Lopezes destroyed; their continued operation and flaunting of
their king-maker role was a constant reminder to her of the humiliation she had
to go through to get Fernando Lopez to team up with Marcos in the 1965
presidential election campaign. The Marcos onslaught against the Lopezes
was, therefore, an act of propitiation for the many sins committed of infidelity
against Imelda in the pursuit of Ferdinand’s desire for the satisfaction of his
genitalia.
The ferocity of Marcos’ crackdown on the Lopez empire was in itself the
product of a miscalculation. Originally, Marcos figured that the Lopezes would
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
raise the white flag, or at least beat a hasty retreat. On the contrary, Marcos’
war merely served to further incense the Lopezes, the politico-economic
oligarchy which no incumbent President ever dared before to fight openly.
Marcos issued reams of denunciatory statements through the Malacanang
press office. All of a sudden, he even became accessible to Palace reporters
for afternoon “news briefings” in which he mouthed his anti-Lopez oligarchy
propaganda. The most he could really do against the Lopezes was to
send internal revenue agents and government auditors to look at the business
books of the Lopez enterprises.
Propaganda-wise, it was evident from the very start that Marcos was on the
losing end. The mass media would no longer swallow his line; his credibility had
sunked to its lowest ebb. On the other hand, the Lopez oligarchy found an ally
in the Manila Times and Daily Mirror publications, whose publishers, editors
and columnists have been exposing Marcos’ shenanigans in his high office long
before the outbreak of the Marcos-Lopez war. Imelda bluntly charged that
Joaquin “Chino” P. Roces, the Times publisher, had struck an alliance with the
Lopezes because the Manila Chronicle had agreed to buy the excess
newsprint supply of the Manila Times Publishing Company at free market dollar
rates. It was, of course, a shallow accusation.
“We will crush the Lopez oligarchy to pieces!” President Marcos once
boasted to a large delegation of “workers” from Tondo. Actually, the group was
made up of jobless persons carted by Congressmen Francisco G. Reyes, a
Nacionalista, at the request of Presidential Assistant Guillermo C. De Vega.
Marcos wanted to prove that the working class was behind him in his fight
against the oligarchs. It was a useless show of force that cost Congressman
Reyes no less than PI 0,000.00 ($1 ,300.00) to organize.
Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos have spouted so much venom against the
late Eugenio Lopez in their mad desire to “destroy” the man who was mainly
responsible for the elevation of the Marcoses to Malacanang.
I hold no brief for the late Filipino tycoon; I don’t owe him that much to serve
as his defender. However, I cannot help but recall at this stage that, before the
political quarrel of the century in the Philippines, Marcos had nothing but praise
for Lopez. In the numerous speeches that Marcos had delivered in the various
Lopez-sponsored affairs (to which he demanded that he be the guest speaker),
the President invariably praised the old man for expanding the country’s
industrial horizons “without borrowing a single centavo from the government.”
For instance, on August 3,1 968, he spoke at the inauguration of Meralco’s
Gardner Station No. 1 in Sucat, Paranaque, Rizal. He said then that the
Gardner station was a “testimonial to the aggressiveness and capability of
Filipino entrepreneur.” He stressed that it is a measure of what a group of
Filipino investors can do.
“Meralco’s expansion should be a model in this country . . . where there is
less government financial participation and the firm, pursuing its own
development through the reputation of its management and the institution,”
Marcos declared.
Marcos had mouthed such line prior to August 3,1968, and was to repeat
the same on other occasions, specifically during the inauguration of the
Gardner Station No. 2 on December 3, 1969, the inauguration of the Asian
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Institute of Management on December 9, 1969, and, much later on May
15,1972, on the occasion of the inauguration of Meralco’s Snyder Station No.
2 also in Barrio Sucat, Paranaque, Rizal.
But Marcos may even have been biased in favor of old man Lopez when
he had nothing but praise for the man from whom he owed so much political
debt. So, I would refer the gentle reader to a “message of inspiration” which Dr.
Stephen H. Fuller, former president of the Asian Institute of Management, in
introducing Eugenio Lopez during the presentation of the Distinguished Service
Award to him by the Harvard Business School Association in Boston,
Massachusetts, on June 9,1972. It read:
We honor today a Harvard alumnus whose life of achievement has
brought credit to his university in a great variety of ways. All of his
accomplishments, however, have been firmly grounded in one single
purpose: to maximize the sound growth of any organization, economic,
political, educational or cultural of which he was a part, and,
simultaneously, to assure the fullest personal development and greatest
profit to the individuals who comprised those bodies. In an age when so
many occupants of leadership positions throughout the world are being
accused of irrelevancy and anachronism, and when the world’s youth are
faltering for lack of acceptable role models, his story brings a unique
message of inspiration.
This School, like this man we honor today, has never separated the
political, economic, social, and spiritual aspects of the world as we sought
to develop people fit to administer it. We, and he, have worked with the
whole man, the basic integrity, the unifying forces that vitalize and render
even more effective the human performance. Perhaps, however, since we,
like he, labor to achieve our broader goal primarily in a business milieu,
we should cite, very briefly, his more conspicuous achievements in that
area.
In context of the present-day problems of the under-developed
countries of the world and of the discontent that rages in them because of
the seeming unconcern of business and industry for the welfare of the
working man, two pages in the life history of this man have special
meaning for us. After completing his education in Law in the Philippines
and at Harvard, he returned as a sugarcane planter to his native province
many decades ago. And there he and his brother, now the Vice President
of the Republic of the Philippines, revolutionized landowner-laborer
relations on sugar-cane plantations by paying the highest wages in the
industry and by extending to workers and their families better working
conditions, modem housing, free medical care, and free education for their
children — an example which other landowners in the area were soon to
follow. Over time, his activities expanded to include a modem ocean
shipping line, the first air way in the islands with multi-motored planes, and
the re-establishment and expansion of a newspaper begun at the turn of
the century by his father, a newspaper dedicated to fight for clean,
democratic government and the exposure of corruption wherever it
existed. In more recent times, he has led a group in acquiring the Manila
Electric Company from its original American owners. And in the ten short
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
years of his leadership, this company has progressed far beyond the
expectations of even the most optimistic, accomplishing in one decade
more than had been accomplished in the previous 60 years. During this
decade also, employer-employee relations at Manila Electric have never
been closer than at any earlier time, reflecting the admiration and affection
felt by officers, employees, and laborers alike for a leader who, they know,
has their welfare and that of their country always as his chief concern.
That he has extended this concern to the youth of the Philippines in
particular, and to Southeast Asia in general, is manifested now by his
nearly legendary contributions to the forms of education which have built
able young entrepreneurs into real assets for the development of Asia. Not
only has he sent the first three of his four sons to Harvard to absorb
knowledge from the same source that helped to nurture and to shape his
own character, but also, as a generous and enlightened employer, he has
afforded and he continues to afford, that same opportunity to study at
Harvard to the promising young men in his employ. Through his
extraordinary generosity, he has donated the entire physical plan
of the Asian Institute of Management, and he has thus provided for able
young people who are interested in management careers, a regional Asian
institution of superior quality dedicated to meeting the special needs of
their own region. His only condition for making that gift was that the
institute have a special relationship of mutual support with the Harvard
Business School. For the latter, he has endowed a special faculty research
fellowship for the study of Asian managerial problems.
This man has a fierce pride and an abiding love for and faith in his own
race. He plays a very significant role in forming public opinion and fostering
a healthy national spirit through his newspaper, The Manila Chronicle, and
through the largest radio-television network in Asia. He has earned this
role by a life-time of personal courage and fearlessness in espousing
causes which were not always orthodox and which were frequently
unpopular. His steadfast advocacy of civil rights and championship of the
press are known and applauded well beyond the territorial limits of his own
country. He does not fear to tangle with the highest leaders of his
government whenever their policies or actions cease “to promote and
protect the general welfare.” He employs every ounce of his personal
integrity and he sacrifices any amount of his own resources to awaken
such leaders to the error of their ways. For these efforts and for his
capacity to listen patiently and to counsel sagely, his countrymen, have
called him “the Conscience of Presidents”.
To the performance of such tasks he brings a great humility and a
modesty bordering on shyness. Most of his contributions to society and to
education are anonymous; and many more would be if he had his way.
Only when he has been persuaded that, in learning to give, as well as to
live effectively, many potential contributors, especially in the developing
areas of the world, need models, has he consented to public
acknowledgment of his generosity.
His family life is a reflection of the same high principles and Christian
values that pervade his professional life. I have yet to know a more
dedicated and devoted family man. His love of family is exceeded only by
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
his love of country and his love of God.
He epitomizes all that is best in the word “Nationalist,” a word so often
misunderstood by representatives of our own country. A universal
humanitarian and a true twentieth century Filipino — he whom we honor
today has already honored Harvard more — Don Eugenio Lopez.
But it was Imelda who was the more dedicated in the fight to crush the
Lopez empire. “Tignan natin kung gaano katigas ang amo mo, Tibo," { Let us
see how tough your boss is, Tibo.) Imelda once declared with fire in her eyes
when Malacanang reporters found an occasion to talk to her following a press
conference with Marcos. In those times, it was always beneficial to see the First
Lady in her Music Room. The Palace reporters would have envelopes
containing “money for your night-clubbing.”
The Marcos-Lopez war didn’t do either side any good. The protagonists
succeeded only in hurting each other deeply. And given the circumstances of
normal run of political fighting under a democratic atmosphere, it was almost a
certainty that Marcos would run out of time in the fight. The Lopezes would
have outlasted him; they would have succeeded in making another man elected
President of the Philippines.
In the end, it was Marcos who was forced to capitulate to the Lopezes. In
late May, 1972, the humiliated President of the Philippines went to the
Paranaque residence of Don Eugenio Lopez Sr. for a breakfast conference.
The same day, he helicoptered to the Manila Chronicle in Pasig, Rizal, for a
peace conference with the Vice President.
The following day, I wrote a story of the Daily Express, entitled “Together
Again” after a famous song.
The Marcos-Lopez reconciliation was actually instigated by Marcos
himself. He had his brother-in-law, Leyte Gov. Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez,
arrange a lower-level meeting with Ernesto del Rosario, former editor of the
Manila Chronicle serving as Vice President for Public Relations at the Lopez-
controlled Manila Electric Company (Meralco). Kokoy meekly started the
approach by asking Del Rosario if he could have lunch one day at the famed
Meralco “Starlite” restaurant, on the 14th floor of the Lopez building in Pasig,
Rizal. Sure, Del Rosario said, he would even play host to the Leyte governor.
When Romualdez went over to the Starlite Restaurant for lunch, he brought
along with him the two Marcos children, Ferdinand Jr. (Bongbong) and Irene.
When Don Eugenio Lopez Sr. heard about the presence of the Marcos children
and Governor Romualdez, he sent instructions that the bill would be on him.
He likewise suggested to Del Rosario that he might invite the ambassadors of
peace from Malacanang to pass by his office on the 1 3th floor on their way out.
This was just the opportunity Romualdez wanted to effect a reconciliation
conference between Marcos and the Lopezes. The details of the Paranaque
breakfast conference and the visit to Vice President Lopez were arranged and
on that very day Romualdez raised Malacanang’s white flag of surrender to the
Lopezes.
The terse official announcement that the Malacanang press office made of
die reconciliation was that the President and the Lopezes have agreed to forget
their differences and collaborate in solving the problems of the country.
However, Marcos told a different story about that meeting when the time
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
came for him to tell it without being contradicted publicly by the Lopezes. After
the declaration of martial law, he said of that fateful meeting: “I again went
through the humiliating exercise of seeking to propitiate some of the oligarchs,
visiting them in their lairs, breaking bread with them and temporizing on their
demands for special favors from Government, hoping thereby to delay their
fatal decision to frankly and openly place their resources at the disposal of the
rebellion.”
The implication of the belated Marcos explanation was that the Lopezes
were preparing to fund the alleged conspiracy of the rightists, the centrists, the
leftists and all other sectors of society to seize state and political power. And
yet, no one could recall a single instance when Marcos ever accused the Lopez
oligarchy of siding with any rebellious group.
To borrow his own words, the efforts at effecting a reconciliation with the
Lopezes was only a ruse designed by Marcos to make his intended declaration
of martial law go without opposition from the Lopezes.
Marcos wanted the Lopezes to disengage from the fighting which, by that
time, had already expanded its front to include almost every articulate segment
of Philippine society; it was just too much for Marcos. Besides, Marcos really
wanted to put everybody off guard preparatory to his imposition of martial
law. If he had not sued for peace with the Lopezes and earned on his fight with
them up to the time of his declaration of martial law, then Marcos would not be
able to live down the accusation that he resorted to martial rule because he
could not crush the Lopezes with ordinary democratic processes.
Marcos likewise wanted to win over to his side the Lopez loyalists within
the Constitutional Convention. He needed their votes to defeat the so-called
“ban Marcos resolution” and to push for approval of smother pivotal resolution
shifting the country’s form of government from the presidential to the
parliamentary.
There were other pressing forces that “guided” the hand of Marcos to
declare martial law. They were all part of the distinct Filipino political culture
that challenged a leader’s manipulative skill to operate within a democratic
bargaining process. They constituted the weaknesses and strengths of
Philippine democracy. Marcos, however, did not have the patience to
adopt a fair manipulative stance demanded of leaders engaged in nation-
building. He merely looked at his former colleagues in Congress and the
wealthy people who financed the campaign of 1965 and 1969 as crooked
politicians and rapacious oligarchs, respectively.
Marcos eyed the Supreme Court, not as final arbiter of human justice, but
as an instrument to cloak his every known official actuation with legitimacy. His
respect for the high tribunal went only as far as its willingness to go along with
Justice Laurel in reversing a trial court decision convicting Marcos for the
murder of his father’s political opponent.
The irresponsible and the unprincipled among the delegates to the 1971
Constitutional Convention are likewise accountable to history for their great
contributions to the pressures they brought to bear upon Marcos to finally resort
to martial law. The manipulations of the Convention delegates led Marcos to
conclude that there was no other way he could retain political power except via
the expediency of martial law. As a matter of fact, some of the “signs from
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Heaven” which the sainted Marcos allegedly perceived as go-signals for him to
declare martial rule surfaced within the halls of the Constitutional Convention.
When the Constitutional Convention came into being in 1971, Marcos
pinned his hopes on this constituent assembly to extend his occupancy of
Malacanang. He was confident that he could manipulate the majority of the
delegates to scuttle the presidential system in favor of the parliamentary form
of government. Marcos would then be able to continue at the helm of
government as the Prime Minister. There would be no need for him to resort to
martial law.
However, some irresponsible delegates carried their “hate campaign”
against Marcos to the extreme. They filed a proposal banning former Presidents
and their relatives by consanguinity or affinity to the fourth civil degree from
seeking the position of President or Prime Minister under the new Constitution
then being drafted by the Convention. The proposal was clearly directed
against Ferdinand and Imelda and it was labelled as a “ban Marcos resolution.”
Delegate Antonio Tupaz cried that the resolution was a “perpetual
condemnation without trial of an entire family to the ignominy of perpetual dis-
qualification from a public office.” The proponents of the “ban Marcos” move
figured that there must be a clear and definitive ban on the Marcoses under the
nascent new Constitution. They feared that Marcos was bent anyway on
prolonging his hold on the presidency; he could easily re-hash with greater
sophistication the machinery by which he won reelection in 1 969 with the three
Gs — guns, goons and gold.
The filing of the “ban Marcos” resolution proved to be the last straw for the
President. Marcos felt he had been pushed to a comer, frustrated; there was
no further elbow room to maneuver for a compromise with the Marcos-haters.
Martial law is the last resort of a government under siege. And Marcos had
decided long ago that he was the government, and the critics and enemies of
Marcos were enemies of the government
But, as a man obsessed with providing a veil of legitimacy to his every
move, however flimsy, Marcos felt that he had to dispose of certain matters first
before he could declare martial law. The Convention had to be manipulated to
approve the shift to the parliamentary form of government and to disapprove
the ban Marcos resolution. Presidential Assistant Guillermo C. De Vega
handled the dirty operations for Marcos. With the two ticklish issues in the
Convention handled to his satisfaction, Marcos felt assured that he could legally
parry any accusation that he resorted to martial law because his occupancy of
Malacanang would have legally ended on December 30, 1973.
History will be able to record in its finality and proper perspective that the
ambitious politicians, rapacious wealthy and the Marcos-haters actually did
democracy a disservice in the Philippines. They provided Marcos with the final
excuse to declare martial law with their ban Marcos resolution. The vitriolic and
underhanded criticism lobbed at Marcos by presidential aspirants and his
enemies constituted one more of the nails that sealed the coffin of democracy
in the Philippines.
While the Marcos opponents subjected the President to pillory at every turn,
they were disparate in their efforts and discordant in their voices; they were
united only in their criticisms that Marcos was an unredeemable crook. They
were so thoroughly divided on the approach to ending Marcos’ tenure in
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Malacanang, disunited on the objectives, and had their own selfish personal
political objectives to serve. One might say that the discord among the
opponents of Marcos was perhaps due to the work of Donald Segrettis let loose
by the President himself within the ranks of the opposition. It was not beyond
Marcos to do just that.
It is rather late in the day to imagine what might have happened, if the
enemies of Marcos reached an accommodation with the man. After all, Marcos
is only another mortal like all politicians (in spite of efforts of his propaganda
office to deify him); he will also fade and die. Perhaps, if the opponents of
Marcos had been a little more circumspect, a little more cautious and
considerate, the man from llocandia would probably have emerged as the
Prime Minister under a parliamentary system, a strong man ruling without the
guns of martial law. The ambition of the man was certainly to stay a little longer
in Malacanang. Even Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. speculated with me once
that, by December 30,1973, Marcos might decide to quit it; he might even feel
sufficiently sated by his ill-gotten wealth. If Marcos had been allowed to rule
constitutionally a little longer, would Aquino, Geny Lopez, Serge Osmena and
all those others who have languished, or are still languishing, in filthy military
stockades and the rest of the oppressed Filipino people have to suffer their
present deprivations? Would I have found it necessary — as I do now — to go
into self-exile, abandon my family and friends in the Philippines to turn out this
book on the conjugal dictatorship that never should have been?
But when Marcos himself was jolted into an awareness that he was
thoroughly hated by his people as expressed in the demonstrations of 1 970 and
in the ban Marcos resolution of 1971, he felt like a cornered rat. He found it
absolutely necessary to implement the contingency plan for a martial law
declaration. He had hoped that an accommodation within the Constitutional
Convention to make him continue at the helm of the ship of state as Prime
Minister would stay his decision to clamp down a martial rule over his people.
The din of criticisms, the escalating violent demonstrations and the ban Marcos
resolution gave him a sense of awareness that, even if he were allowed to serve
under a parliamentary system as Premier, the abuses and pressures that he
and Imelda would have to contend with would just be unbearable. So, he opted
to squat in Malacanang under the protective mantle of martial law.
In the early skirmishes over the ban Marcos resolution, the anti-Marcos
forces demanded as a price for withdrawing their move the issuance by Marcos
of a public and signed pledge that neither he nor Imelda would seek the
presidency after December 30,1 973. It was also demanded verbally by student
leaders of a demonstration that turned into the infamous “Battle of
Mendiola” on Jan. 30,1 970. In a very dishonest effort to meet the demands half-
way, Marcos issued a statement through Press Secretary Tatad that neither he
nor his wife would seek office in the 1973 elections. It was honest enough in
the sense that there would be no elections in 1 973.
A key factor that emboldened Marcos to impose martial law was his
“overwhelming” reelection victory in 1 969. It was, of course, an election triumph
that had been marred by shameless raids on the public treasury, amounting to
almost a billion pesos, and tainted by wholesale frauds and unbearable acts of
violence. Whatever the cost, it was a reelection that Marcos precisely needed
to declare martial law on his seventh year in office.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Marcos could have been stopped from winning reelection, or from
garnering that overwhelming margin of victory over his challenger, Senator
Sergio Osmena Jr. Marcos had a built-in advantage that neutralized any strong
fight to his reelection bid. It was the general belief that Marcos would step out
of the Malacanang at the end of a second term on Dec. 30,1973. On the
other hand, an Osmena victory over Marcos would have prejudiced other
presidential aspirants within the ranks of both the Nacionalista and Liberal
parties. Osmena would certainly have to seek reelection to a second term.
Thus, the Nacionalista presidential hopefuls for 1973 all worked to help Marcos
win; the Liberals all helped Osmena campaign — but not hard enough to make
him win.
And then, by 1970, after Marcos’ inauguration as President for the second
time, all the presidential aspirants from both sides of the political fence
immediately classified Marcos as a crooked lameduck President. Osmena
himself led the pack by filing an electoral protest against Marcos. The others
just started hitting Marcos to gain publicity, or to promote their presidential
ambitions over the carcass of Marcos.
In discussing the situation with me one day, Marcos said he would have to
assume a posture of firm leadership “for the good of the country, for the stability
of our civilized institutions.”
Marcos even began to encourage speculations through the press and
among his Nacionalista partisans in Congress that he was preparing to impose
martial law. Privately, he told me, he had two objectives in doing this, namely:
1) To prevent a paralyzation of government from the public knowledge that
there is a lameduck and weakened presidency in Malacanang, and 2) To sound
out general public reaction, or to actually condition the mind of the people, on
the eventual imposition of martial law.
Drawn by the bait, the opposition hacked away mercilessly on Marcos for
planning martial law for the country. The gambit of the opposition was that, if
the plan were exposed and publicly discussed, Marcos would be dissuaded
from going through with it. It turned out to be a wrong gambit. Marcos fired back
that he would not hesitate to declare martial law if the situation so demanded.
Marcos had by that time allowed the clock on his “crisis management” in the
country to tick away the hour of martial law.
One of the biggest mistakes committed by the opponents of Marcos was
the handling of the ban Marcos proposal and the presidential vs. parliamentary
affair in the Constitutional Convention. Having gotten Delegate Eduardo
Quintero to expose the “Con-Con payola” and Elly Velez Pamatong the
“Operation Con-Con” of Malacanang,* 3
(*3. For more details, see Chapter on “Infrastructure for Martial Law.”)
opposition partisans thought they had cornered Marcos and rendered him
helpless. They became so heady with an imaginary decapitation of Marcos.
They moved for an immediate voting on the ban Marcos proposal as well as on
the parliamentary plan. The immediate voting was precisely what Marcos
himself wanted. For, if he had lost, he would have had enough time to maneuver
before the elections of November, 1973, came up.
Moving into battle with Marcos on the convention floor, the opposition
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
partisans erroneously judged that the concerted voices of the Manila Times,
the Manila Chronicle, the Philippines Free Press, the Weekly Nation and the
Graphic and other mass media who had joined the chorus denouncing Marcos’
inexorable march towards dictatorship would provide them with the needed
votes. As it turned out, the anti-Marcos elements garnered all the laudatory
columns and editorials, but the Marcos convention managers got the votes to
defeat the ban Marcos move and to approve the proposal for a parliamentary
system of government for the Philippines.
The headlong rush into what the opposition partisans thought would be an
arena for a spectacular decapitation of Marcos as a power in Philippine politics
turned into a rout — eventually signalling the demise of democracy.
Chapter VII
The Reign of Greed
The underlying philosophy of the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and
Imelda is basically intestinal. A digestive interpretation of this philosophy easily
reveals that the regime in developing a feudal factory system that would enable
just a few families to run the Philippines as a private business.
Admittedly, with the brutal use of the guns of martial law, the New Society
has rid the country of the old oligarchy.
However, the same coercive and extortionate process has produced
overnight a new oligarchy. More powerful than the old, the new oligarchy
assumed control of a growing, seemingly endless list of corporations and
business firms in the country. The new oligarchy is made up of the ruling
duumvirate themselves, their relatives, their cronies and a few favored military
commanders.
And the new oligarchy has not been discriminating in its oppressive
business manipulations. By dictatorial decrees promulgated by Marcos, the
working class had been stripped of Its right to free self-organization and to
strike. A policy of keeping wages low has been adopted so that maximum profits
can be had with minimum investments.
The very few who could bask in the reflected notoriety of the conjugal
dictatorship have become the noueau riche as they mustered the levers and
uses of power made available by the guns of martial law.
The best illustration of the intestinal philosophy of the New Society is in the
field of mass media. Contrary to the pledge of the martial regime to
“democratize” mass media ownership, today the ownership of newspapers and
other periodicals, radio and television is concentrated in different but fewer
hands * 1 (* 1 . ® ee Chapter on “The Era of Thought Control.”)
In the area of business and finance, new tycoons have flourished to replace
or even surpass the two or three whom the martial regime has branded as
malefactors of great wealth. Other captains of industry who have learned to
kow-tow to the new regime remain as firmly at the helm today, as they were
before martial law.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The so-called “New Society” or “Bagong Lipunan” might as well be
renamed the “New Scourge” or “Bagong Likuman,” respectively. The latter term
means “New Collection.” The territorial jurisdiction of the New Society could
appropriately be called “Gulangan Archipelago,” in a most comprehensive
adaptation of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago.” The Philippines is
an archipelagic state converted overnight by the conjugal dictatorship into a
huge concentration camp for dissenters. The work “gulangan” itself is a T agalog
term meaning one man’s continuous cheating in the division of goodies
with the use of wiles or superior strength.
There has never been any sincere attempt to provide a philosophy for the
much-ballyhooed New Society. This is quite understandable since the conjugal
dictatorship is too pre-occupied with the notorious task of plundering the
country. Once in a while, Marcos finds time to talk about the needs of the people
in a dramatic show of his knowledge of intestinal philosophy — an intestinal
philosophy solely dedicated to the speculatory and unjust enrichment of the
ruling duumvirate, members of their families and cronies, including a few
military commanders.
The ruling clique and its cronies have come to demonstrate that the highly-
touted new reforms of the dictatorial regime are meant only to affect certain
“grand issues” and nothing was really supposed to change when it comes to
the members of the ruling clique’s comfort and convenience, and economic and
political interests.
The “dramatis personae” have changed, but the “modus operandi” based
on the principle of selfish self-interest has not. And having committed the
mistakes of amateurs, the new plunderers of the Philippines seek to hide their
criminal looting of the national treasury, and of the public and private resources
by the more convenient process of cover-up. In so doing, they commit more
mistakes. This is exactly the predicament that Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos,
Kokoy Romualdez, Benedicto, et al, find themselves in.
In short, they are blundering ahead selfishly to destroy the country in a
fashion that says to the rest of the Filipino nation: “Listen to what I say, but don’t
watch what I do.”
The brutal establishment of a tall oligarchic pyramid with reserved places
for Ferdinand and Imelda, Kokoy Romualdez, Benedicto, Enrile and some
military commanders was, of course, a necessity. In the first place, they must
safeguard and defend the interests of foreign investors with whom they must
work to reallocate unto themselves the country’s resources. In the second
place, it is fairly obvious that a financial and economic base was necessary for
the survival of the martial regime itself. The oligarchic structures were not only
necessary, but also inevitable, because they are the instruments in the inter-
play of economic forces that must amass and consolidate wealth which, in turn,
must produce the profits and public taxes.
On September 20, 1975, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin came out editorially,
with a piece entitled “Corruption as Usual.” The editorial declared:
Indirect evidence that martial law has not ended corruption in the
Philippines has been provided by the government itself. It consists of an
announcement that President Ferdinand Marcos has ordered a large scale
purging of corrupt officials.
Martial law has been in force in the Philippines for three years. One of
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
its chief objectives was to wipe out corruption, and in fact soon after it was
instituted Marcos fired 6,000 bureaucrats and military personnel.
Yet the announcement said the new housecleaning was needed ‘to
check misconduct in government and to restore declining public
confidence in public office’. Among those being dismissed are 99 judges.
It all sounds familiar to persons acquainted with the innumerable
crusades against government corruption in the post-World War II
Philippines. The difference is that martial law was supposed to do the job
— but three years after, by the government’s own admission, it hasn’t.
The truth probably is that there was some decrease in corruption at
the outset of martial law in reaction to the mass dismissals that were made
possible by Marcos’ assumption of total power. But as time passed, the
shock wore off and there has been a tendency to return to business (and
corruption) as usual.
Dictatorship in the Philippines, as elsewhere, has made it easier to
deal with corruption because the bureaucrats have lost their protection
against arbitrary dismissal. But there is also a disadvantage — there is no
independent body to seek out corruption in the executive. Thus the
elimination of corruption depends solely on the administration itself.
It is believed in Manila that high military officers have grown rich under
martial law by exploiting power that far exceeds what they had in the old
days. But with the press brought to heel and Congress closed, there is no
way to bring such cases to light if Marcos chooses to protect the offenders.
There is also the question of Marcos’ own honesty , which was
repeatedly challenged in pre-martial law days. With the political
opposition suppressed, there is no one to prevent the President from
acquiring as much illicit wealth as he chooses. And his critics outside the
Philippines claim that he has been rapacious. (Italics ours).
But if corruption has flourished under martial law, one of its chief
justification is lost. That could set the people to wondering what they gave
up their liberties for. No wonder Marcos has set out to eradicate “misdeeds
that have shaken deeply the faith of the people in government”.
I have my serious doubts on the determination of the President to
“eradicate ‘misdeeds that have shaken deeply the faith of the people in
government’.” How can he eradicate those “misdeeds” when he himself and his
wife, their close relatives and cronies are deeply mired in those misdeeds on a
far greater scale?
Barely two years after the imposition of martial law, I became convinced
that the reforms so loftily held out by Marcos on September 23, 1972, were
mere promises. Marcos had not shown any sign that he would shed off his
cocoon as a “promising man.” One day I mustered the courage, with the prior
clearance of Secretaries Clave and De Vega, to tell Marcos what was
happening to the New Society. I warned Marcos that the real New Society was
not taking shape at all. I reported that the people refer to the so-called reforms
as nothing but acronyms and government by sloganeering.
At the time, I thought I should really give it to him. I was under the illusion
then that, in the event a counter-revolution succeeds against Marcos, I would
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
be among those who might be left behind to face a firing squad, along with
Secretaries Clave and De Vega. I figured that Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
would be able to escape Malacanang, and perhaps the Philippines, to enjoy
their billions of ill-gotten wealth among the discarded royalties of Europe and
Asia.
I told the President that the people outside the Palace gates were laughing
their hearts out over the high-sounding acronyms and slogans of the New
Society. I reported that the people think they are mere smoke screens to cover
up the plundering of the country by Marcos and Imelda themselves, their
relatives and cronies.
Marcos’ braintrusts had earlier come up with the slogan, “Sa ikauunlad ng
bayan, disiplina ang kailangan” (For the country’s prosperity, discipline is
necessary). They also coined high-sounding acronyms, like PLEDGES, PROD
and COPE. “Pledges” stood for the initial letters of the seven-point reform
program of the New Society, to wit: peace and order, land reform, economic
reforms, development of new moral values, government reorganization,
educational reforms and social reform. “Prod” meant Presidential Regional
Officers for Development, while “Cope” were the Coordinating Officers for
Program Execution. The “Prods” and “Copes” were to coordinate in the speedy
implementation of the reform program embodied in the “Pledges” of the New
Society.
Marcos originally bargained with his political enemies through
intermediaries. He did the same thing with the Catholic church, the Federation
of Free Farmers, the sugar lobby and other powerful groups in the country.
Those who cooperated were temporarily allowed to go about their businesses.
However, those who did not were subjected to further harassment and
dispossession of their interests.
The initial motivation of Marcos in these moves was to strengthen his
position in power and weaken the influence of his political opponents. He
wanted to utilize martial law to dismantle their economic interests and put an
end to this old feud in the oligarchy. But, as his regime aged, Marcos could not
content himself anymore with divesting his political foes of the economic wealth
which they could later utilize again to fight the dictator. He was tempted by his
own greed — and those of Imelda and her relatives, notably Kokoy — to take
over the Lopez-owned tri-media facilities and the Meralco (Manila Electric
Company). The clique has also taken over the various enterprises of Osmena.
Members of each of the Lopez and Osmena clans are still under arrest on
charges of plotting the assassination of the Marcos family.
When I was still in Manila and moving within the inner circle of the ruling
clique in Malacanang, Imelda would tell us (De Vega, Clave and me): “Hindi
natin maaaring pakawaian si Geny Lopez habang may nalalabing kayamanan
pa ang mga Lopezes. Kailangang isuka muna nilang lahat ang kayamanan nila.
Baka gamitin na naman nila iyan laban sa atin.” (We cannot give Geny Lopez
his freedom as long as the Lopezes are still in possession of great wealth. They
must divest themselves first of their economic power. They might use this again
to fight us.) This was before the death of Don Eugenio Lopez and the acquisition
by Kokoy of the $300-million Meralco on a downpayment of $1 ,500.00.
Upon the advent of the Marcos administration in 1965, business tycoons
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Lopez, Osmena and a few others felt the pinch of a new principle of economics
invented by Marcos and Imelda. The ruling duumvirate wanted substantial
participation in the stock structure of established enterprises for free or for
nominal considerations. The reasoning of Ferdinand and Imelda was that they
had dispensed so many favors to these business enterprises by way of loans
and other concessions from government institutions. When the established
wealthy businessmen resisted the new economics principle of Ferdinand and
Imelda, they were denounced as oligarchs bleeding the country. They were
publicly accused of allegedly wielding their economic and political power to
amass greater wealth.
One of those who stood up to the encroachments of Ferdinand and Imelda
was businessman Fernando Jacinto, whose family had pioneered in steel
smelting and other undertakings involving the processing of steel. Don
Fernando told Marcos one day to “go to hell, I won’t share with you the work of
a lifetime, the product of blood, sweat and tears of my family for free.” Even
before martial law was declared, government institutions began squeezing
Jacinto. The steel magnate was forced to flee the country.
When martial law was declared, President Marcos lost no time in seizing
the properties of Fernando Jacinto. He didn’t do it for himself this time though.
It was a spoil of war that he felt should go to the military commanders. Always
with an eye to providing legitimacy to even the most illegal operation, Marcos
effected the seizure in a most subtle way (even under martial law standards).
On October 28,1972, Marcos directed the Secretary of National Defense “to
take over and control the assets” of the corporations owned by Fernando
Jacinto “in the national interest.” * 2 These were the Jacinto Steel, Incorporated,
Jacinto Iron and Steel Sheets Corporation, J&P Shipping Corporation, Beatriz
Marketing and Trading Corporation, and Ferro Products, Incorporated.
Covered by the seizure order were a newspaper, complete with a printing plant,
and two radio stations. (*2. Letter of Instructions No. 35, dated October 28, 1972.)
Overnight, a new oligarchy of military officers was created. They were the
colonels, majors, and captains who took over the executive positions in the
Jacinto enterprises. General Romeo Espino, the armed forces chief of staff, sits
as the chairman in all the boards of directors of the Jacinto enterprises.
On June 17,1975,1 submitted the following capsule report to the Fraser
committee of the House of Representatives on the systematic plundering of the
country:
VI. POWER CORRUPTS, ABSOLUTE POWER
CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY
With absolute and unchallenged power consolidated into his authoritarian
regime, the Marcos military regime has gone absolutely corrupt.
1) President Marcos now thinks and acts in terms of establishing an empire.
Palace advisers are talking in terms of whether he should assume sometime
later the title of emperor or king of an imperial dynasty that is coming into being
in Manila.
2) As an integral part of the program to organize an imperial dynasty, the
martial regime is developing a feudal factory system that would enable just a
few families to run the country as a private business.
3) “Ley de embudo” has become a statute in the land. Only President
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Marcos, or his anointed front men, cronies and in-laws may venture into
profitable business enterprises, with foreigners or with the use of government
credit.
4) The extension of the Parity Rights provision of the Constitution up to July
3,1 975, was by no means an altruistic gesture on the part of President Marcos.
The one-year period enabled his front men and in-laws to fan out and enter into
purchase agreements with American citizens divesting themselves of holdings
in agricultural, mining and public utility firms in the Philippines. Since such
divestments by Americans must necessarily be approved by two or more state
agencies, no other enterprising Filipino could hope to compete with the front
men and cronies of the President in obtaining the required approval by state
agencies of any purchase agreement.
5) The leaders of the martial regime and anointed families/cronies
monopolize the media industry.
6) The regime and its anointed families/cronies own the major land, water
and air transportation companies.
7) President Marcos owns the controlling stocks, through his front men, of
course, in the major private commercial banks. Ownership has been acquired
through the years since 1966, but with greater ease upon the imposition of
martial law.
8) In early 1 973, Mr. Marcos promulgated a decree providing for automatic
foreclosure of mortgages on properties used as collaterals in obtaining loans
from government financing institutions, should the borrowers be unable to
update their amortizations on their loans. Hundreds of agricultural and business
enterprises were foreclosed by virtue of this decree.
The hapless owners of these foreclosed properties were actually enticed
into borrowing from the lending institutions, what with assurances of
unrealistically big loans on over-valued collaterals provided they would
contribute a certain percentage (a total of 27%) to the campaign chest of Mr.
Marcos in the 1969 elections. The borrowers obtained the initial releases on
their loans, but have had to cough up the full value of their commitment to the
campaign chest. However, when the economy floundered in 1970 because of
an over-supply of money in circulation, President Marcos ordered further
releases on the approved loans stopped — thereby forcing the borrowers to
neglect or abandon their projects and default in their repayments.
Now, the front men and cronies and-brother-in-law of the President,
headed this time by Alfredo Romualdez, are busy restructuring with the
government lending institutions the loans on the foreclosed properties.
In one case involving the Pampanga Sugar Milling Company, an offer of an
independent Filipino group was turned down by the Philippine National Bank in
favor of an offer of Roberto S. Benedicto to manage the firm for the PNB. The
independent group wanted to purchase the mill outright; in the case of
Benedicto’s offer, the PNB would continue to pump money into the Benedicto
management of the milling company.
9) President Marcos ratified the long-pending Philippines-Japan Treaty of
Amity, Commerce and Navigation, a bilateral pact granting Japan a “most-
favored-nation” treatment in the Philippines.
The 24-man Philippine Senate would not ratify the treaty for 13 years in
view of widespread fear that it would hand over to Japan on a silver platter what
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
the former enemy country sought to win by force of arms during World War II,
i.e. the economic domination of the Philippines.
Ratification by presidential decree of the trade treaty came after Benedicto
had cornered all conceivable deals with prospective Japanese investors in the
Philippines.
10) Military personnel have been allowed to take over the rackets of
members of Congress and the protection rackets run by local policemen at
soaring rates proportionate to the inflationary trends.
11) Authorship of crimes has changed. The crime syndicates have been
wiped out, most of their more notorious leaders have been jailed. But organized
crime is surfacing anew. This time groups of military personnel, unable to share
in the graft of their commanders, engage themselves in syndicated kidnapping
for ransom, arson, murder, car-napping and robbery hold-up.
12) President Marcos has become the biggest landowner in the Philippines.
Aside from heavy participation in a number of mining companies, which he
naturally acquired for free with the use of the vast powers of the presidency,
Mr. Marcos holds ownership through his front men vast tracts of agricultural
lands in Northern Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao and is eyeing ownership
of thousands of hectares more of virgin agricultural lands which he soon will
declare by decree as free and disposable forest lands.
13) Mr. Marcos is in the oil business. Almost immediately after he declared
martial law, the President signed a decree easing the heretofore strict
requirements of Philippine laws on oil exploration within the country by foreign
drillers. In that decree, he provided for attractive terms to entice foreign oil
drillers into entering into exploration service contracts with Philippine oil
concession holders. Before any such contract is signed (with appropriate
ceremonies in Malacanang), the personal equity participation of the President
through front men is first assured.
14) Mr. Marcos is in the free trade zone. He is a partner, the major one
quite obviously, of former Rep. Pablo P. Roman in the ownership and operation
of a large portion of the commercial area in the Free Trade Zone in Mariveles,
Bataan. Under the guise of dispersing industries from overcrowded Manila, the
President signed a decree requiring the transfer of big industrial firms,
especially garments and embroidery mills, to move to the free trade zone.
15) The President is in the export business. Through a series of
manipulations disguised as an aggressive foreign trade program,
the President now controls through Roberto S. Benedicto and other front men
the exportation of Philippine sugar, copra and cement. These export products
are acquired by several national exporting centers from Filipino producers at
50 percent of the prevailing world prices.
16) Mr. Marcos is a treasure hunter. In early January, 1970, when
accusations that he had become the “richest man in Asia” was reaching fever
pitch, he called in Malacanang reporters and admitted to them that he was
really rich. But the source of his wealth, Mr. Marcos said, was the treasure of
Yamashita which he had discovered in Northern Luzon. Incredible as it may
sound, the claim had some truth in it, although it may not have been the
fabled buried treasure of Yamashita.
What is certain is that a unit of the Presidential Security Command had,
during the Marcos I administration, discovered some buried Japanese treasure
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
in the Sierra Madre area. It did so while screening all applications for permits
to hunt for buried treasures in any part of the country.
One might ask: Why the insatiable desire for wealth and more wealth?
This becomes a paradox when one watches the President eat. He eats his
simple llocano food and with his own hands. He does not drink, does not
smoke, he dresses simply — all of which might perhaps be due to his llocano
upbringing.
Why are President Marcos and Imelda then behaving as if they own the
entire Philippines?
First, because it is their decision and unto-the-death wish that they stay in
power for as long as they are alive. They wish to insure that the ill-gotten fruits
of such prolonged squatting in power will not be taken away from them or their
heirs;
Second, they have convinced themselves that they have just embarked on
a radical step to restructure Philippine society to save it from certain collapse.
They are possessed with a messianic complex;
Third, as a result of the second, they suffer from a paranoia that they are
really loved by the people and that the people will not take for a ruler anybody
but the Marcoses;
Fourth, as a consequence of the second and third reasons, they feel that
they took a bold step for which they are now risking their very necks, and those
of their children, for the benefit of the people. As their thinking goes, the Filipino
people must render them blind loyalty and obedience so they can continue in
their ways of restricting society. At the same time, they must take steps to
protect themselves from the enemies they have made because of the
“sacrifices” they are making for the people.
They feel that, if a counter-revolution succeeds, they would be placed
before the firing squad by the new victors. How true.
The “big deals” in the country are, without exception, cleared by the
President. It is the President who must devise eventually the formula that
respects the Constitution even if they involve multi-million dollar scandals. This
was the same procedure followed in the approval of the first floating casino off
Manila Bay.
The tenor of the conversations that take place in Malacanang behind the
President’s study desk when a business deal or proposal which calls for
government exposure in terms of funding or concessions goes this way:
“Mr. President, you know, there is a proposal which has been submitted to
you and which (Secretary Melchor or so and so) has already endorsed
favorably.
“Oh, huh,”
“The company is asking for this and that...”
“Oh, huh.”
“What do you think, Mr. President?”
“What are the requirements of your company? Perhaps, you should send
me a new memorandum because the one sent by Secretary Melchor has been
filed away by Fe.” (He calls for Fe, asks for the memorandum, but quickly
suggests that Fe is inefficient about these things. Fe does not answer, of
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
course. This is a typical script in the Palace, to get somebody to accept the
blame for any failures that might be traceable to the President.)
At this point, an experienced man, who knows the mentality of the
President, would immediately state:
“Sir, the new company’s stock structure will be divided among (the names
of the persons)... Do you think it would be all right to include anymore?”
“Bakit naman panay Intsik (o Hapon) iyang mga iyan?” (Why are they
mostly Chinese [or Japanese]?)
“Mabuti seguro . . . ay . . . isama mo sina (he gives the names).
“Yes, sir. And, sir... (in whispers) in whose name should we register the 20
percent equity?”
“Oh, just put in the name of (he gives the name of his front man) and tell
him to be active in the affaire of your group so that we will know what we can
do for you.”
Such is the subtlety of Marcos in “demanding” his equity from huge
corporations being formed; he waits until his equity is offered to him.
As for Mrs. Marcos, she is an unrefined arm-twister, and demands in direct
unequivocal terms what she wants. She and her brothers and sisters, notably
Kokpy Romualdez, are plain stick up people.
When a deal is elevated by Mrs. Marcos or by her brothers and sisters to
the President, it is assumed that a definite figure on the equity they would have
in the new project has been agreed upon.
Only recently, a Filipino engineer obtained a grant from the U.S. AID
(Agency for International Development) for a comprehensive aerial
photogrammetry of public lands and forests in the Philippines. The engineer
needed, however, the go-signal of Marcos to undertake the project.
Unaware of the Palace “protocol,” he simply wrote the President that he
has been granted a multi-million dollar funding by AID to undertake the
photogrammetry project. He needed Malacanang cooperation.
Not long afterwards, the engineer was summoned by the First Lady to her
Music Room in the Palace and given a lecture. Didn’t he know that all projects
involving financing from the United States must pass through her or Kokoy
Romualdez?
Imelda hinted to the engineer that all she wanted was credit for the project.
This seems quite understandable. In spite of her already being “gobemadora
of the Metropolitan Manila Area, she still has been unable to conduct any
meaningful and fruitful negotiations with U.S. institutions for funding of her
impact projects. She would have wanted to present the photogrammetry project
to the President as her achievement.
The engineer, in the meantime, has been advised by a Palace assistant
that his project was under study.
The grabbing of the Lopez properties by Benedicto and Kokoy Romualdez
is something that the dispossessed won’t easily forget or forgive.
A man more easily forgets his father’s death than the loss of his patrimony.
And so it is with the heirs of Don Eugenio Lopez, it seems pertinent to recall at
this point that it was the Lopez money that contributed to their own tragedy
under martial law. Don Eugenio not only financed Marcos’ 1965 campaign, his
wife, Pacita, and daughter, Presy, practically killed themselves campaigning as
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
“Blue Ladies” of Imelda for the victory of Marcos.
I would like to quote at this point a report submitted to the United States
Congress on the acquisition of the Lopez assets by Marcos’ friends and
relatives.
The dual case of political prisoners Eugenio Lopez, Jr. and Sergio
Osmena III has served to bring to light another result of the martial law of
President Ferdinand Marcos and his closest advisers, including his wife,
the beautiful Imelda Romualdez Marcos.
XXX
In 1965 when Marcos left the liberal party to attempt to unseat the
incumbent President on the conservative ticket, it was Eugenio Lopez, Sr.
who sold Marcos to the conservative convention. Fernando Lopez went
on the ticket to help the team to victory. (Voted upon separately, Lopez
out-polled Marcos in both 1965 and 1969.)
The reasons for the Marcos retaliation against the Lopezes — in which
the imprisonment of the younger Lopez is a key element — appear to be
three: (1) a desire to destroy the Lopezes as a political force; (2) a stifling
of freedom of the press; and (3) a naked desire for money. It is with that
third goal we deal here.
The Lopez family was wealthy — one of the wealthiest in the
Philippines. Furthermore, it was “old” money, grounded in sugar cane and
rice. After the Japanese occupation (in which the Lopez family at times
lived in caves in the hills), principally through the abilities of Eugenio
Lopez, Sr. the fortunes were increased by branching out into industries
including the newspaper and the radio and television network. In 1960,
Lopez, Sr. organized group of investors as “Meralco” to purchase the
Manila Electric Company from American ownership. As Manila became
larger and more modem he guided the enterprise to eight or nine times its
former size — now worth more than $400,000,000. The stock went public,
but the Lopez interest was still sufficient to maintain management control
— in fact, it had never been questioned.
Upon declaration of martial law the Manila Chronicle, increasingly
critical of Marcos, was shut down under a censorship order. Later the
facilities were taken over by the Times-Journal owned by Governor
Benjamin Romualdez, brother of Mrs. Marcos, under agreement for
leasing of the facilities from the Lopezes. The contract of lease itself was
not based on a free negotiation. Payments have been sporadic and
amount to about half the amount due. With the publisher in prison and the
other two owners — Eugenio Lopez, Sr. and Fernando Lopez —
effectively silenced, there was no one to complain.
The confiscation of the media network, ABS-CBN, was cruder. Upon
the arrest of Eugenio Lopez, Jr., president of the company (and other
officials) the government ordered all ABS-CBN stations closed down.
Commencing June 8,1973, the ABS-CBN outlets were turned over by the
military one-by-one to a small network, KBS, owned and operated by
Ambassador Roberto Benedicto, a close associate of President Marcos
and an option to purchase given to Governor Romualdez (brother of Mrs.
Marcos). At first, “leases” were prepared by KBS which included the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
remarkable provision that the compensation would be “reasonable” and
determined at a later time. Eugenio Lopez, Sr. claimed in a recent
interview that “not a single peso” has been paid. By 1974 the takeover by
KBS of the further facilities was simply by order of Defense Secretary Juan
Ponce Enrile. Capturing the Lopez controlling interest in the Manila
Electric Company was a more sophisticated enterprise. Unlike the
Chronicle and ABS-CBN, Meralco Securities Corporation (the holding
company for Manila Electric) was a publicly-held company with the Lopez
family as the largest bloc of stock.
Following a series of conferences in the United States conducted
between Eugenio Lopez, Sr. and Governor Benjamin Romualdez (brother
of Mrs. Marcos) and Romualdez aide, Antonio Ayala, a meeting was held
in Honolulu, Hawaii, on November 29,1973 and Lopez was presented a
“Stock Purchase Agreement” purporting to be an agreement between
Benpres Company (the Lopez family corporation) and a newly-created
Meralco “Foundation." The senior Lopez had been told by Romualdez and
his aides that if he would execute this agreement, his son “Geny” would
be released. Mr. Lopez signed. One Senen J. Gabaldon signed for
Meralco Foundation, Inc. — he has since declared that he had nothing to
do with negotiating the agreement, but that the agreement was presented
by Ayala (who signed as a witness), who was not an official of the
Foundation but a personal representative of Governor Romualdez.
The stock purchase agreement is replete with formalities, providing for
a down-payment of $1 ,500 (sic) upon closing and a series of payments on
promissory notes for some $6,000,000 over a period of years. However,
in reality, no further payment is required since the agreement contains the
following language:
“The principal installments and interest on each Series B Note [the
notes to Benpres] shall be payable x x x only to the extent that the cash
flow of the Foundation (as determined by the independent external
auditors of the Foundation) permits payment of interest and principal
installments as these fall due***”
The $1,500 was paid more than a year later — after the hunger strike. It
has been reported that the Meralco Foundation is purchasing a jet airplane for
approximately $1 million (in addition to three already owned — used by the
Marcoses), thus reducing the cash flow.
The senior Lopez has stated that he never expected to be paid anything
and that his son was held hostage to extort the Lopez interest in Meralco from
them. Government control of the utility rate structure has also been used,
according to Lopez, first to threaten Meralco with bankruptcy and then to enrich
the participants in the new “foundation.” This was accomplished by reduc-
ing a previously authorized rate increase from 36.5% to 20.9% before
negotiation of the stock purchase agreement and then upon acquisition raising
the rates more than 1 00%.
Meralco Foundation responded in an article in the Manila Times Journal
(lessee of the Chronicle facilities) on January 18, 1975 that Lopez had asked
to sell the family stock. What Lopez actually originally proposed was to sell to
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
a “cooperative composed of Meralco employees, customers and the general
public . . That was suggested on February 19,1973. He offered to sell to a
foundation only after he had been told that was the way it was going to be
handled.
The imprisonment of Eugenio Lopez, Jr. not only purchased the silence of
the Lopez family, but became the instrument by which major Lopez holdings
were acquired by the Marcos family and associates.
The following is the text of the interview that Lopez gave to the newsman
Benoza as published by the Philippine News on January 2, 1975:
MR. BENOZA: Mr. Lopez, on November 29,1973, you signed a “Stock
Purchase Agreement” on behalf of Benpres wherein all of the MSC shares
held by Benpres were sold to a certain “Foundation”. Did you personally
conduct the negotiations for this agreement?
MR LOPEZ: Yes, I handled the important aspects of the negotiations.
MR. BENOZA: The total stated purchase price in the agreement is Pesos
1 33.337.000 (about $1 9,000,000) with approximately $5,700,000 payable
to your corporation and the balance of approximately $1 3,300,000 payable
by the Foundation directly to the creditors of Benpres. Do you feel the
purchase price is a fair price?
MR. LOPEZ: Well, the purchase is not important. The agreement is only a
document which enables the Foundation to take over our family’s holdings
of MSC. According to the terms of the agreement, the Foundation is not
really obligated to pay me anything, except the down payment of Pesos
10.000 ($1,500). The agreement states that the net principal amount
of $5,700,000 plus interest is payable over a ten-year period with the first
payment due 30 months after the “closing”. However, the terms of the
agreement provide that the payments to Benpres shall be made only if the
“cash flow” of the Foundation permits. This simply means that payments
will be made to me if the Foundation has excess funds after all
other obligations, expenses, etc., are met. Since the income of the
Foundation is controlled by the Foundation itself and by the Philippine
Government through its control on the electric rates of MECO, it is very
simple to regulate the “cash flow” so that there will never be any excess
funds to pay Benpres. I do not expect to ever receive anything out of the
sale of Benpres.
MR BENOZA: You mean that you gave away Benpres worth several
million dollars to this Foundation?
MR LOPEZ: Well, this is what the agreement basically specifies; here is a
copy of the actual signed agreement for your own study and verification.
This agreement was not a business transaction. It was one of the
agreements wherein our family was giving up our multi-million dollar
assets in exchange for the life and freedom of my imprisoned son and the
safety of the rest of my family residing in the Philippines.
MR BENOZA: Who then negotiated the terms of the agreement?
MR. LOPEZ: The important negotiations were conducted by Governor
Benjamin Romualdez, the brother of Mrs. Imelda Marcos. However, these
negotiations were not on the terms of the agreement; I had agreed with
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Governor Romualdez that he could take over all of the assets of Benpres
at no cost in exchange for the freedom of my son and the safety of the rest
of my family. I authorized Governor Romualdez to prepare the agreement
on his own terms so that it would appear like a legal transaction, but there
is no way really one can purchase a multi-million dollar company for
nothing and make it appear legal. When I signed the agreement in
Honolulu on November 29,1973, it was the first time I ever saw it. I believe
it also was the first time Mr. Gabaldon, the President of the Foundation,
saw it, just before it was signed.
MR. BENOZA: We noticed that Mr. Antonio Ayala and Miss Delia Tantuico
are the only other two signatories of the agreement, as witnesses. Who
are they?
MR LOPEZ: Mr. Ayala is a close associate of Governor Romualdez and
was sent to my residence many times during the past two years to discuss,
on behalf of Governor Romualdez matters pertaining to our family
business holdings and matters relating to my son’s release. Mr. Ayala is
actually an employee of MECO and is not supposed to be (is not officially)
associated in any way with the Foundation.
On January 23, 1975, the Philippine News published this second interview
of newsman Benoza with Don Eugenio:
MR. BENOZA: What did Marcos actually do?
MR. LOPEZ: What he did was really very simple. Having the power to
regulate the income of Meralco by his control over the electric rates, he
ordered a reduction in the already approved reasonable rate increase
awarded by the Public Service Commission prior to martial law.
Specifically, on May 29, 1972, the Public Service Commission approved
an increase in rate of 36.5% above the existing rate to cover added
operation costs. However, after martial law was declared, Marcos reduced
the previously authorized increase from 36.5% to 20.9%. This reduction
aggravated Meralco’s financial position. As a result, Benpres actually
defaulted in its payments for the first time in its history.
MR. BENOZA: Are those reduced rates still applicable today under the
new Meralco management and ownership?
MR. LOPEZ: Not at all. After the Foundation took over Meralco, Marcos
increased its rates by more than 100%. As a result, the millions of poor
Filipino consumers of light and power carry the burden. They are now
paying more than double what they were paying under our management.
MR. BENOZA: Mr. Lopez, the Foundation in its defense on the purchase
of your Meralco shares stated that “the incorporation papers of the
Foundation provide that no part of the Foundation’s property or income
would inure to the benefit of any trustee, officer, or member thereof.” What
is your opinion of this claim?
MR. LOPEZ: I wonder who Mr. Marcos is trying to deceive. Everyone
knows in the Philippines that the so-called "Foundation” is just a front of
the Marcos-Romualdez business interest
An article last week by your business editor, Mr. L. Quintana, mentioned
the fact that during the birthday party of Mrs. Marcos last July 2, 1974, all
of the catering personnel of the Meralco employees’ restaurant and
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
cafeteria, together with most of the restaurant facilities (silverware,
glassware, china, etc.) were flown to Leyte Island to serve the personal
guests of Mrs. Marcos. Also the Meralco planes were used continuously
to transport many of Mrs. Marcos’ invited guests. These facts are known
by thousands of Meralco employees and Mrs. Marcos’ guests. Mr.
Quintana also mentioned that in addition to the three planes which it now
owns, Meralco has ordered a new private 9-seater pure jet aircraft costing
about one million dollars. There is no justification in buying an expensive
jet for Meralco’s operation. Obviously, the plane will be used not for
Meralco purposes, but mostly for the First Couple’s and that of their
friends.
Now, Mr. Benoza, can you ask the Foundation officials under what
section of the Articles of Incorporation of the Foundation are the Marcoses
and the Romualdezes allowed to use the facilities of Meralco when they
are not even officially officers of the corporation? Remember that all of
these costs are actual burdens being shouldered by the poor Filipino
masses who use electricity.
One of the maneuvers set into motion by President Marcos and his brother-
in-law, Kokoy Romualdez, to weaken the Lopezes into submission involved the
person of Vice President Fernando Lopez. It is a classic story of a man’s
inhumanity to man.
However, the inhumanity committed against the former Vice President finds
an explanation, if deplorable, when one considers the fact that the perpetrators
of the deed were motivated by a greed for the properties of the Vice President
and his brother, Eugenio.
The little saga of the Vice President began when he received word that his
elder brother, Eugenio, Sr., was “dying” in San Francisco. He decided he must
see his “dying” brother before the latter goes to the great beyond.
I then became an unwilling participant in the sad experience of Toto
Nanding.
The Vice President, it seems, sent a telegram to the President asking for
an audience so that he could seek permission to leave for the United States for
what might be a last meeting with his sick brother.
Lopez never got an answer from the Palace, and after the lapse of several
days, he requested me to visit him at his Forbes Park residence. There he
explained his predicament to me. I readily consented to submit a note to the
President reminding him of the Lopez request.
I did not get an immediate “feedback” from the President. So I decided to
suggest to the Vice President that he write a personal letter to the President,
asking for permission to leave the country and to guarantee his return, he would
place all his properties as bond. To insure that he would not utter any
derogatory remark against the New Society, I suggested he should state in the
letter that he would be willing to have me accompany him on the trip.
The President reacted to the Vice President’s letter the following day when
he told me that he, Kokoy and I should get together in Malacanang on the case
of the Vice President, and that he had asked Ambassador Trinidad Q. Alconcel
to check on the state of health of Eugenio Lopez.
I waited for Kokoy in the Palace that day. And I did see him in the company
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
of Airport Manager Luis Tabuena. However, he abrasively put me off when I
reminded him that the President wanted a conference on the Lopez case,
saying “Pabayaan mo na muna ang mga Lopezes .” ( Leave the Lopezes to their
doom.)
A week passed and Kokoy did not do anything. In the meantime, a friend
who has been acting as the Veep’s contact man with me, informed me that
because of the tension of waiting for the Marcos clearance, the Vice President
collapsed in his home one night. He quoted the Vice President as saying that,
“unless Tibo helps” in the effort to get him a passport, he might die
ahead of his brother.
At the risk of being accused of showing an unusual interest in the passport
application of the Vice President, I approached the President again. He told me
that he had given instructions to Kokoy to see the Vice President.
The following day I sought out Kokoy at the coffee shop of the
Intercontinental Hotel and told him about what the President had told. I inquired
if he would see the Vice President, and he said he would. I then called up the
house of the Vice President to say that Kokoy would see him that day. Before
leaving the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel, Kokoy asked me to prepare
a series of statements which the Vice President would have to issue in his own
name in connection with the trip.
I found out three days later, when I submitted to Kokoy the prepared
statements he sought from me, that Kokoy had not seen the Vice President at
all. It was becoming evident to me then that Kokoy wanted to give the Vice
President a hard time.
I even tried to guess at the time that it was possible Kokoy wanted to renew
or extend his option to buy the ABS-CBN network from the Lopezes. In any
case, he clearly showed resentment over my attempts to press him on the
passport of the Vice President.
Then it happened all of a sudden. This came about when the international
press raised hell about the investigation I was conducting, in my capacity as
chairman of the Media Advisory Council, of Arnold Zeitlin, “Associated Press”
bureau chief in Manila. The President disauthorized me publicly from continuing
the investigation.* 4 (*4. See Chapter on “The Era of Thought Control.)
On the same day, Kokoy sought out the Vice President, brought him to the
presidential yacht to be told that he would be allowed to leave to see his ailing
brother in San Francisco.
The statements which I prepared were subsequently issued by the Vice
President abroad.
The Vice President wrote Marcos a letter pledging to return to the
Philippines and placing his properties at the disposal of Marcos.
The New Society of Marcos and his gang is a society of the noveaux riche.
They are the new oligarchs who did not have any “seed money”. And yet they
succeeded in taking over lock, stock and barrel, the properties of the Lopezes
and of other established affluent families in the country.
The rapacious plundering jobs undertaken by Kokoy and Roberto S.
Benedicto on the properties of the Lopezes is one of the more notorious ever
known. However, there have been equally more heinous extortion activities
carried on with the brutal use of the naked powers of martial law by other
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
anointed cronies of the President.
The more notorious front men of the President in various spheres of
economic plunder are Benedicto, in addition to media, for the Japanese
business; Rodolfo Cuenca, for the various infrastructure projects; Ricardo
Silverio, for the car and appliances manufacturig field; Gilberto Duavit, for
organizing mining ventures; Eusebio Agonias, for grabbing mining claims
previously staked out; Director of Mines Juanito Fernandez, who works in close
cooperation with Agonias on direct instructions from the President; Ralph
Nubia, who also fronts for the First Lady, in setting up business within the
Chinese community; Lucio Tan, who works closely with Deputy Commissioner
of Internal Revenue Conrado Diaz, for the tobacco business; Joselito Yao, for
the drug business; and Tantoco, for the Rustan conglomerate.
Some suggestions have been made that these so-called front men of the
President may just be in business for themselves. Such an idea must be
rejected altogether. It is actually Marcos who tells, or approves, of all major
transactions in the country. An all-seeing big brother, Marcos is on top of all
things. Nobody, not even Kokoy, would think of doing anything without
the signal or subsequent approval or ratification of his acts by Dictator Marcos.
No one can guarantee that the crooked deals of Kokoy, Benedicto, et al
happened beyond the scope of Marcos’ comprehension. He ratified them
subsequently.
The capture of the Lopez empire is a classic case in point. I was asked
sometime in February, 1973, by former Vice President Fernando Lopez to visit
him. My compadre, Pete S. Deyto, who relayed the message said it was rather
urgent that I see the Vice President. It turned out that the Lopezes were ready
to sell all their holdings in the Meralco and ABS-CBN companies to the
government of the martial regime. I wrote Marcos a memorandum on what the
former Vice President told me. Marcos, in turn, told me to inform Fernando
Lopez that the definite response would have to await the arrival of Kokoy.
Kokoy was then in the United States, obviously visiting his women in New
York. I never took up the matter again with the President, since it did not
concern my area of operations in the first place. Around July, 1973, Kokoy
started teasing me at the coffee shop of the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati that
I have a “very rich client” in the person of the Lopezes. I deduced by then that
Marcos had already directed him to handle the Lopez offer to sell out. I then
mustered enough gall to ask the President about the Lopez deal, and he told
me to “leave the entire matter to the Governor (Kokoy).”
Although Kokoy operates for, and by authority of, President Marcos, I am
sure he would not pass up some golden opportunities to be in business for
himself to expand his ill-gotten wealth. As the man granted by the President
exclusive franchise to operate in the United States, Kokoy’s has the rare
opportunity to deal with the foreign multi-nationals doing, or planning to
do, business in the Philippines under the protective mantle of the martial
regime.
Every new company set up in the Philippines must cough up “gratis et
amore” from 10 to 25 percent of their equity holdings to Kokoy. He always
stresses, of course, that he holds such shares in the name of President Marcos.
In smaller areas of operation, Kokoy holds the shares in his own name.
Established businesses in the Philippines, whether owned by Filipinos or
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Americans, have been approached by Kokoy directly or through emissaries and
told that they would get better business from, or establish better relations with
the biggest business establishment in the Philippines — the government — if
they should make it appear or make known that the honorable governor from
Leyte is a major stockholder of theirs. The gratuitous equity usually demanded
is 25% to 40% from domestic firms, and from 10% to 25% of foreign owned
companies.
Aside from Kokoy, the other brothers and sisters of Imelda, and to a lesser
degree, the sisters and brother of the President, have their allocated private
preserves to plunder. But in comparison to the insatiability of the Romualdez
group, the relatives on the side of the Marcoses and the Edralins appear as
poor relations.
There is no doubt that the President has condoned, or encouraged and
ratified the insatiable drive of Imelda, Kokoy, Mrs. Fortuna, “Baby” Marcos-
Barba, Ferdinand’s youngest sister, Alfredo “Bejo” Romualdez, et al for
amassing wealth by the outright naked use of power to grab existing and
prospering business enterprises from their legitimate owners/possessors.
The martial law syndrome is so pervasive among the top cronies and
associates of Dictator Marcos they behave as if they alone have a monopoly
on patriotism. Not only that. They behave as if they are being paid by the people
in order to be oppressive, as if they would suffer a sense of guilt if they permitted
themselves to be kind and understanding.
Within the Central Bank of the Philippines and the Department of
Agriculture, the “franchise holder” is Alita Martel, a younger sister of Imelda.
Alita’s husband, Rodolfo, and brother-in-law, Antonio Martel, are in charge of
supplying the agriculture department with “Kubota” farming materials and sup-
plies. This is one reason Marcos has been unable to fire Secretary of
Agriculture Arturo R. Tanco. Alita protects him.
Only recently, the Martels succeeded in getting the City of Manila to
approve the establishment of another Jai-Alai fronton at the city government lot
at the comer of Vito Cruz and F.B. Harrison streets, near the Central Bank
compound. Now, the new fronton will operate in full competition with the Jai-
Alai of the Madrigals. The Madrigal Jai-Alai enterprise has been a closed family
corporation which the Marcoses and their front men could not penetrate by
strong-arm tactics.
The younger brother of Imelda, Alfredo, a commander in the Philippine
Navy, has his own allocation of areas to be plundered. Naturally, it has
something to do with his training. To him was awarded an entire national
shipping enterprise. Alfredo controls the BASECO (Bataan Shipyards and
Engineering Company) which has acquired the disbanded NASSCO (Na-
tional Shipyards and Steel Corporation). Of course, BASECO was funded with
loans extended on liberal terms, upon direct authorization by Marcos, by the
National Investments Development Company, a subsidiary of the state-owned
Philippine National Bank.
One other concession granted by President Marcos to “Bejo” is the
segregation of a 300-hectare portion of the Mariveles Free Trade Zone for use
by the BASECO. This was done by the issuance of an unpublished presidential
decree. The BASECO-Bejo special decree contravened a policy laid down by
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Congress when it enacted the law establishing the Free Trade Zone in Bataan.
The original statute specified that no portion of the Free Trade Zone may be
segregated from the reservation unless the area to be segregated is covered
by a Torrens Title. The area segregated for BASECO was covered only by an
“informacion posesoria” title. Small farmers whose lands within the Free Trade
Zone are covered only by “informacion posesoria” have been unable to win any
grant similar to Bejo’s.
One rich field for the plundering activities of Marcos and company is the
area of agro-industrial enterprises. This field yielded millions of pesos of
campaign funds for him in 1969. Under martial law, it again became an easy
area for picking.
The tragedy of the agro-industrial field, which Marcos and his gang are now
exploiting, started in the 1 969 elections. At that time, an open borrowing season
was declared by Marcos in the government financing institutions. Anybody with
any agricultural or industrial enterprise could borrow huge amounts from the
Development Bank of the Philippines, the Philippine
National Bank, the Social Security System and the Government Service
Insurance System.
Among those encouraged to borrow were the operators and/or owners of
rice mills, pasture lands, fishponds, ranches, or any agricultural enterprise, and
captains of various industries. Approval of the loan application meant an
immediate release of 50 percent of the amount applied for. The catch was
that one-third of the amount released should be immediately forked over to the
campaign coffers of re-electionist President Marcos.
The proceeds from this loan “kickbacks” provided a major source of the
electioneering funds of Marcos. The conservative estimate is that Marcos spent
almost FI billion ($250 million in 1969) for his reelection campaign. The
overspending brought about an oversupply of money in circulation, bringing the
Philippine economy to near total collapse. The International Monetary Fund
then ordered the Philippine government to float the peso, a move which brought
a sudden devaluation. Marcos was also compelled to “freeze” the release of
the remaining 50 percent of the loans approved before the elections by the
government financing institutions.
The borrowers were then left holding an empty bag. In no time at all, the
projects so ambitiously started were either abandoned or suffered for lack of
additional operating capital. The borrowers defaulted in their payments.
The unkindest blow came when martial law was declared. Marcos
promulgated Presidential Decree No. 385 providing for automatic foreclosure
of all mortgages where the mortgagors have been delinquent in their payments
to the government financing institutions. The decree provided that its
implementation may not be hampered by any restraining order, or temporary or
permanent injunction issued by any court of law.
As the government financing institutions foreclosed on the mortgages, the
relatives of Ferdinand and Imelda, and their cronies got busy gobbling up the
re-possessed properties.
Bejo Romualdez, a rural banker as well, branched out into the rice
warehousing business by organizing the Kamalig, Philippines, Inc. The new
corporation found it easy to open doors at the DBP, PNB and SSS to restructure
the indebtedness of the thousands of rice mill owners whose properties Bejo’s
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
corporation started acquiring.
Benedicto concentrated on the foreclosed sugar mills. He was more crude
in his operations. He simply entered into contracts with the Philippine National
Bank for the management of the sugar mills. By such an arrangement,
Benedicto assured himself of continuous funding of his management by the
PNB. In one case, Benedicto took over the management of the foreclosed
Pampanga Sugar Milling Company. This despite the fact that a French-backed
Filipino corporation had offered to buy the Pasumil and relieve PNB forever of
sinking in more in the enterprise.
Lesser lights able to bask in the reflected notoriety of the New Society also
maneuvered for themselves. Anos Fonacier organized, with the backing of
Tourism Secretary Jose D. Aspiras, a corporation that took over the
management of the debt-ridden Bay View Hotel, which had also been
foreclosed by the DBP. During a Malacanang conference on the Bay View Hotel
take-over by Fonacier’s group, President Marcos personally directed that
Aspiras’ balae,* 5 Jose Teodoro, be included among the investors in the hotel
management firm. (*5. A daughter of Aspiras got married to the son of Teodoro.)
The truth of the matter is that the few people who can have a pipeline with
President Marcos are engaged in unrestrained plundering of the public and
private resources of the country.
Military commanders have their own areas of responsibility. Brig. Gen.
Tomas Diaz, commander of the First Military Area, is in league with Major
General Fabian C. Ver, commander of the Presidential Security Command and
director general of the Marcos secret police, in the smuggling of luxury items
from the coastal area of Bataan, Zambales, and the llocos.
This is not to say that there are no decent men who have managed to keep
their noses relatively clean. Some of them are Presidential Executive Assistant
Jacobo C. Clave and the late Presidential Assistant Guillermo C. De Vega.
In the military, I could point only to Major General Fidel V. Ramos,
Constabulary chief, as the only relatively clean ranking officer of the armed
forces. On a number of occasions, General Ramos and I have compared notes
on cases of graft and corruption within the military and in the Cabinet of the
President which we have reported to Marcos. Ramos is especially irked by the
activities of Benedicto and Kokoy, and the graft in the Department of Public
Information.
However, Clave, De Vega and General Ramos are just droplets of clean
water in a bucketful of mud. At times, they have had to swallow their pride and
junk principles to obey the orders of President Marcos himself, the First Lady
and Kokoy Romualdez.
Marcos has been unable to crack down on the racketeering military officers
and the dishonest Cabinet officials. I did appreciate his position while I was still
working for him. Marcos could not just offend the military. He could not dismiss
a Cabinet member and run the risk of being exposed by his own man on his
own graft and abuse of power. The only way Marcos has been able to show his
displeasure to a Cabinet member is to split the department he heads. This is
what happened in the case of Secretary Tanco whose department was split into
two, one for agriculture and another for natural resources.
While the ranking armed forces and other lesser lights in Cabinet and sub-
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Cabinet levels of the martial regime are making hay, the lion’s share still goes
to the unholy trinity consisting of Ferdinand and Imelda, and Kokoy. Somehow,
Benedicto is nearing approximation of the degree of sophistication which
the unholy trio had perfected in their insatiable drive for wealth, and more
wealth from their bleeding countrymen.
One of the finest moments for Kokoy and Benedicto came during the
second year of martial law.
In May, 1974, the President unilaterally extended the Parity Rights for
Americans in the Philippines. At the same time, he reversed the Supreme Court
decisions in the Quasha case * 6 (nullifying all sales of private lands to U.S.
citizens after 1945) and the Luzon Stevedoring case * 7 (banning foreign
directors in corporations engaged in Filipinized industries.)
In another area, at almost about the time that the “American
theatre” was left open for Kokoy’s exploitation, Marcos made the Japanese
theatre of investment available to his business front man, Benedicto. Marcos
ratified the Philippines-Japan treaty of amity, commerce and navigation. Before
this was done, however, Benedicto obtained his authorizations to corner
for himself and the President all the arrangements by which Japanese investors
might be allowed to avail of the “most favored nation” treatment in the lucrative
Philippine market.
The plunder of the Philippines by Marcos and his gang has been so
thoroughly planned. The plans are being executed with precision. It just defies
comprehension when people ask what Marcos and his gang intended to do with
their loot. “They cannot take their wealth to their grave. Besides, we don’t think
they are enjoying their wealth as wealth should be enjoyed,” people would say.
The magnitude of thievery in which Marcos and his gang are engaged may
never be assessed. Long after they shall have gone from this world, archivists
and researchers would still be discovering bits of evidence of their wanton
plunder of the country.
(*6. Republic vs. Quasha (1972), 46 SCRA 160; Constitution, Article XVII, Sections 1 1 and 12.)
1 * 7 . Luzon Stevedoring vs. Anti-Dummy Board(l972),46SCRA 479; 1973 Constitution, Art. XIV,
Section 5.)
Chapter VIII
The Unholy Trinity
Gaining national notoriety for his conviction as the gunman in the first known
political assassination in Philippine history in 1935, sought by Filipino guerrillas
in 1945 for allowing a Japanese convoy to pass his line unmolested, winning
the presidency in 1965 and a reelection in 1969 through “guns, goons and
gold,” absolute dictator of the Philippines by 1972 — Ferdinand E. Marcos.
A miserably poor, but good-looking barrio lass, salesgirl in a piano
wholesale-retail store in the early 1950s, made a personal beauty queen by a
dashing Cassanova-like mayor of Manila, “gobemadora” of the Greater Manila
area, aside from being a meddling First Lady in exact negation of Cardinal
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Wolsey’s historical protest that “power does not lie between the legs of a
woman,” the seventh richest woman in the world by 1975 — Imelda
Romualdez-Marcos.
A law graduate too scared to take the bar examinations, errand boy of
newspapermen then being spoiled by ambitious politician Ferdinand E. Marcos,
thrown out of the “Supper Club" gambling casino of Ted Lewin for so many
“sabit” (unsettled gambling debts), “husband-in-law” to many husbands
(both in the United States and in the Philippines), now among the wealthiest
Filipinos and holder of gratuitously acquired equity shares in numerous foreign
corporations established in the Philippines, absentee governor of his native
province of Leyte, pretending to play the role of a Henry Kissinger for his
brother-in-law-President — Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez.
This is the trinity of power in Malacanang under the martial regime of
Marcos. Someday, when Marcos kicks the bucket, “Kokoy” Romualdez will
himself seek to fit into Marcos’ shoes. Some day, Kokoy will seek to rule at the
expense, physically, of Ferdinand R. “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. Bongbong is the
second child and only son of the loose union of Ferdinand and Imelda.
Ferdinand wants him to succeed to the presidency ala Chang Ching-kuo of
Taiwan.
One of the factors Marcos considers in mind when he continually reminds
his abusive and arrogant Cabinet members that the regime has not yet
sufficiently stabilized itself is the ever present threat of Imelda and her brother,
Kokoy, carrying out their plan to shove Marcos out of his tenuous Malacanang
pedestal.
The First Lady and Kokoy have a joint timetable for getting rid of, or
liquidating, the President. They are moving rather cautiously now in the guise
of “doing everything for the greatness of “Da sir”. They find it most difficult to
keep their motives, ambitions and moves from the prying eyes of the llocano
relatives and cronies of Marcos.
All indications seem to point to a timetable that the sister-and-brother team
might be working for their own joint rule of the Philippines, 1) in the event of
Marcos’ sudden demise through causes sans human intervention, or 2) when
they perhaps might be able to knock off Marcos and rule on their own.
This can be very evident in the voracious and insatiable drive of Imelda and
Kokoy to amass jointly and separately as much wealth as they could.
The plotting by Imelda and Kokoy on the “throne of bayonets” that Marcos
has established in Malacanang is not without historical precedents. Imelda
herself has absorbed so much of the lessons of ancient Rome when the
Borghese families warred on each other, installing their own Popes and
Emperors.
Imelda and Kokoy are also developmg (jointly again) the image of a
topnotch sister-brother team adept at diplomatic trouble-shooting team,
although they seem to have separate, but similar culturally-motivated objectives
in going to New York three or four times a year. Imelda goes to New York for
her Israeli connection, Kokoy for his married “queridas.”
On the home front, the Imelda-Kokoy operations also form parallel lines.
Imelda cultivates the loyalty of the local officials by calling them one by one to
the Palace; Kokoy does it through the League of Provincial Governors and City
Mayors, with the assistance of Secretary of Local Government Jose Rono.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
So the gambit becomes evident. Imelda would emerge, upon the demise
of Marcos, as the only logical successor, what with her being “gobemardora” of
the biggest metropolitan area in the country; and Kokoy would provide the
advise and assistance to his sister.
Or, they might feel one day that they are strong enough to knock off
President Marcos so they can advance the timetable of their take-over of the
reins of government. Then Imelda will be known as Queen Imelda, with
complete freedom for her jet-setting parties abroad.
Kokoy is developing his strength among the governors and city mayors by
his handling of the mock referendum for Marcos. He also makes sure that
presidential favors granted or sought for the governors and city mayor are so
declared to the effect that they could not be given without his clearance.
But I do maintain that the Imelda-Kokoy dream is impossible. Without
Marcos, they are nothing. Their strength lies in Marcos’ strength. Take Marcos
out and the next minute Kokoy will be tied to the nearest lamp post by the angry
llocanos.
A number of llocanos are just waiting for the demise of President Marcos
to get their hands on Kokoy. Igagapos sa langgaman (to be tied to a post atop
an anthill) is the term used by the llocanos, borrowing a term from the T agalogs.
One of them is former Congressman Roque S. Ablan, Jr. And, in the United
States, Dr. Leonilo Malabed, and to acertian extent, even Ambassador Trinidad
Q. Alconcel, are damn mad at Kokoy for his behavior towards the llocanos.
Both Imelda and Kokoy are aware 01 the resentment that they have
generated among the llocanos. That is the reason they make it a point to
intrigue against every llocano of consequence who might be showing signs of
leadership, or who may be capable of contesting their own plans to succeed
Marcos.
On top of their list are Secretary of National Defense Juan Ponce Enrile;
Major General Fabian Crisologo Ver, chief of the Marcos secret police; and
Major General Fidel V. Ramos, chief of the Philippine Constabulary. Nor are
these three unaware of the machinations of Imelda and Kokoy. They have their
own plans of neutralizing Imelda and Kokoy in the event of Marcos’
sudden demise.
My knowledge of this particular situation was gained by me owing to the
particular advantageous relationship I have had with Marcos. Being one of the
just about five persons outside his immediate family who could see the
President at any time, I was looked up to by most Cabinet members who could
not enter the Palace without being called by the President as a reliable
“informant” on the “weather in the Palace” (i.e. what the mood of the President
is, or what inside dope they could possibly use for their own aggrandizement).
The Cabinet members would invite me to see them in their offices for luncheon
conferences as they try to find out just how they rate with the dictator, the
First Lady or Kokoy. One Cabinet member with whom I kept a regular luncheon
date was Secretary Enrile. The secretary knew that although administratively,
he is the No. 1 implementor of the martial edicts of the dictator, and therefore
the No. 2 man in the official ruling clique, his own stability in the defense
office could very well be undermined by the First Lady and Kokoy, two members
of the Unholy Trinity about whom he (Enrile) had adopted a realistic attitude;
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
that he could have only their neutrality, but never their support by way of putting
in a good word with the President. Enrile just cannot swallow his pride and
accept the fact that a woman and her brother could be sharing the vast powers
of the dictatorship with President Marcos.
“It just isn’t done. How long can the President stand for this government of
laws, in-laws and outlaws?” Enrile asked me one day when we were alone
together in his conference room, his executive assistant, Rolando de la Cuesta,
and senior aide, Col. Flor Aquino Jr., having just stepped outside to attend to
some other matters of the defense establishment.
As I pried into the mind of Enrile, I discovered his own ambitions of
succeeding Marcos one day. But the resentment he has against the First Lady
and Kokoy was very revealing; it was of such depth and magnitude that he
could just engineer the assassination of the two members of the Unholy T rinity.
And this is not hindsight, either; I took action as early as that time to
warn the President that some of his most trusted people were already planning
to succeed him. I even supplied him a list of “possibles” among the AFP ranking
officers, and even members of the Presidential Security Command, who might
be sympathetic to Enrile in his expressed madness at the two officious
members of the Unholy Trinity.
Whatever action the President took on my report, he did not see fit to so
inform me. It has always been that way with us when I pass on information to
him — he would not tell me about the counter-action unless it directly
concerned my department. Besides, the President must have thought at the
time that it was just as well that Mrs. Marcos and Kokoy would have opposition
on whatever plans that they might have concocted for themselves in the event
of his demise.
Enrile especially resents the attempts of the First Lady to “act as the
guardian of my morals.” Enrile questioned her competence to be just that to
him. “What moral right has she got to meddle in my affairs, or to tell me with
which woman I should go to bed with on my own time? She should first try to
control her own husband’s rampage on young women. Besides, she should
watch her movements, especially when she is abroad. My intelligence officers
and military attaches have turned in reports that, if shown to the President,
would justify the old man’s killing her with his bare hands.” Enrile exploded
one day.
Enrile turned his wrath on the First Lady, but I could sense that he was
attacking her with Kokoy in mind, too. He voiced his own suspicions that Kokoy
is working through Presidential Assistant Guillermo C. De Vega — at the
instigation of the First Lady — to have him removed as defense secretary. On
this point, Enrile turned on De Vega, stating that he was surprised at De Vega’s
posture of hostility towards him.
It was from Enrile that I first learned one of the tried and tested tactics being
employed by the brothers and sisters of Mrs. Marcos to get the President to
“make them presents,” grant concessions or yield in violation of established
policies on certain contracts involving multi-million peso deals .* 1
(*1 . The wealth of the in-laws of the President and his cronies is treated extensively in another
chapter of this book.)
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The brothers and sisters of Imelda (Kokoy, Alfredo, Franciping, Alita, Mrs.
Edon Yap, et al) have their own corps of spies which has only one mission: to
spy on Dictator Marcos to find out which woman he had taken, or plans to take,
to bed. If any of them makes such a discovery, the matter is usually not
immediately reported to the First Lady. The bearer of the “bad news” usually
waits for such time as when he or she had a fat government deal which only
the President can approve or disapprove. After breaking the “bad news” to the
First Lady, the particular spying brother or sister — Kokoy is topnotch among
them on such projects — asks Mrs. Marcos for the favor of having the President
approve the deal in mind as quid pro quo for the vital piece of information
furnished the scorned queen of the Palace by the Pasig. The First Lady then
raises hell with the Dictator for his latest act of infidelity, and demands that
appropriate propitiation be made. In addition, would the President kindly favor
a “neglected” brother or sister with the approval of this particular government
contract? A cornered President then reluctantly makes his peace offering, and
to get her off his back and to cut off her nagging, yields to her importunings in
favor of the brother or sister. One such concession could be permission for her
to make another trip abroad to visit some potentate in the Middle East or to New
York to cavort with her jet-set crowds and display her multi-million dollar jewelry
collection.
In the beginning, I treated the Enrile story on how the First Lady and her
brothers and sisters terrorize Dictator Marcos into yielding to their demands
with some degree of skepticism. After all, Enrile was the kind of a man who is
liable to utter anything in the heat of anger. Later, I personally confirmed
this particular situation of “terrorism” perpetrated on the Dictator by the
Romualdezes. Information Secretary Tatad, Immigration Commissioner
Edmundo Reyes and Airport Manager Luis G. Tabuena have also told me about
this situation, but in a boastful manner as if to brag that they were privy to some
of the mischiefs of their chief, Kokoy. I treated such boasting as part of the
braggadocio of people out to prove a claim of closeness to the powers that be.
For instance, about two months before martial law was proclaimed, Imelda
boarded a Philippine air force Fokker plane for Tacloban City at about 8:30 a.m.
On that particular day, several important people were scheduled to be received
by Marcos. The appointments calendar was suddenly cancelled by
Appointments Secretary Venancio Duque, on orders from Marcos. At about
10:00 a.m. the First Lady suddenly materialized in the Palace, and quite
naturally, started looking for her husband — who was nowhere to be found; or,
so the Palace aides told the First lady. At about 11:00 a.m., the President
himself turned up in his Study Room, and started receiving, surprisingly, all the
visitors whose appointments with him were suddenly cancelled just a few hours
earlier but who nevertheless had gone to the Palace, the notices of cancellation
of their appointments having reached their offices when they were already on
their way to Malacanang. As the President was giving an audience to a visitor
from a foreign country Mrs. Marcos barged into the Study Room, intentionally
making her presence known by closing the door heavily behind her. The
President, alert that he must undertake some peace offering, called out to her,
saying: "Darling, come and meet the representative of. . .” The President was
unable to complete his statement of invitation; he even failed to get the eye of
the First Lady who breezed through the erect security people whom she
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
normally greets but this time did not. "Gagoi Hindi pa ako nakakaaiis" (Stupid,
I haven't even left yet!) shouted the First Lady, evidently meaning that Marcos,
the lover boy, had not even bothered to wait until she was definitely on her way
to Tacloban City before going about his sexual therapy with another woman.
"Nahuli na naman si boss!" ( the President got caught again) whispered De
Vega to Clave and me. What De Vega meant was that the President got caught
again with his pants down by the secret police of Imelda. Later, Tatad, without
realizing that I was myself in the Study Room that noon while he was
gallivanting somewhere else, called me to his inner sanctum at the old Press
Office building and. in a patronizing manner, confided to me the Study Room
incident. "The President", Tatad said, "got caught by the intelligence network of
'Puti' again!" Kokoy was sometimes referred to as "Puti" by his cronies because
of the premature whitening of his hair. I said I knew about the First Lady’s
discovering another case of infidelity on the part of her husband, but not
Kokoy’s part in it. Tatad then explained to me that the First Lady was already
airborne on her way to Tacloban City when Kokoy reached her pilot with a
message that brought her back to Manila. Tatad recounted that Kokoy and his
agents spotted the President’s whereabouts (in a most unlikely place obviously)
at about the time the First Lady was barely 10 minutes airborne enroute to
Tacloban City. Tatad added that Tabuena gave him the full details of the story
of the President’s being discovered in the company of another woman.
It was just an incident, one of those things for which a man, the son of his
father, really must be crowned.
Marcos, however, was no ordinary man; neither were the circumstances
around him. He was (and still is illegally this time) President, with scheming in-
laws who use their sister, Imelda, after driving her to anger, to extort
concessions from the ruler who is supposed to be dictating things to the other
45 million oppressed Filipinos. That particular incident must have, based on
Enrile’s story, yielded Kokoy some priceless rewards from the First Lady.
In other aspects of government, however, one may observe the members
of the unholy trinity working in harmony and close cooperation that one is liable
to forget the fact that Imelda and Kokoy have a Sword of Damocles hanging
over the head of Marcos at all times.
Imelda and Kokoy do have their own areas of operation where the President
seems to have very little interest. For instance, Imelda and Kokoy mastered the
politics of revenge, conducted in a very crude manner. Unlike Marcos, who
could be exacting vengeance on former tormentors and yet make the victim
feel and believe that Marcos is actually doing him a favor - and with a smile.
Both Imelda and Kokoy have a common proclivity to wreak vengeance on
people who had at one time or another oppressed or sneered at their lowly
beginnings; they would force these people into a situation of eating off their
palms. Such is the treatment Imelda and Kokoy are now dishing out to former
Manila Times staff, members, starting from former MT executive editor Jose
Luna Castro. Kokoy has made it his personal business to exact vengeance on
the newspapermen who used to shout at him when he was doing errands for
Marcos the candidate by now making them work as his lowly employes in the
newly established Times Journal. Newsmen who unhappily receive such
treatment are Castro, Manuel B. Salak, Bernie de Leon, and Julie Yap-Daza,
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
among others. In the case of the pre-martial law critic of Imelda in the old Manila
Daily Bulletin, Amelita Reysio-Cruz, she was clamped in jail, too, along with
other pre-martial law media critics of the President.
As for Imelda, her obsession is to make the rich families who ignored,
despised or shied away from her when she was not yet the First Lady of the
land pay for their impudence by now forcing them to pay obeisance to her as
the Lady Dictator of the Philippines. Ladies forced into this humiliation belong
to the affluent families of the Yulos, the Madrigals. Lopezes, Aranetas,
Cojuangcos, Felicianos, et al. Now, most of them are her "Blue Ladies" subject
to her beck and call. After all, she is now more wealthy than all of them put
together.
But what they consider insufferable is the paranoiac fits Imelda goes into
when, without warning, she would regale them with tales of men and women,
young and old, dirty and unwashed, swooning over her as she passes them.
All these, she would claim, mean that the people have nothing but love and
admiration and adoration for her.
One of the reasons that eventually goaded the Marcoses to declare war on
the Lopezes in 1971 was the resentment that had built up in Imelda over the
continuing claims in public and private circles that the Lopezes were the
principal power brokers that won the 1 964 Nacionalista presidential nomination
and the 1 965 presidential election of Ferdinand. Imelda would not acknowledge
the big role played by the Lopezes in the capture by Marcos of Malacanang.
“Wala naman talagang naitulong sa atin ‘yan mga bosses mo, Tibo. (Your
bosses did not really help us.) We had to pay for every minute of air time that
they gave us in 1964 and 1965 at the ABS-CBN radio-TV networks,” Imelda
told me one day. Imelda insists that she was the vital difference in that heated
1965 election battle between President Macapagal and challenger Marcos, and
because she is being disputed, nay belittled by the Lopezes, she would show
the real power of a woman whose efforts the Lopezes were doing everything to
denigrate.
As for Kokoy, he has made a deal with Imelda that he would establish their
power base among the officials of the local governments, who are more
numerous than the members of the armed forces which they have written off
as "lost" in the event of a power struggle with Enrile et al upon the disability or
demise of Dictator Marcos. Imelda and Kokoy realize that they cannot rely on
the armed forces for support to any llocano leader of consequence in a post-
Ferdinand power struggle — for the simple reason that 70 percent of the
manpower of the public armed forces are llocanos. Thus, Imelda and Kokoy
are concentrating on the local officials, making them swear personal oaths of
loyalty to them. As a matter of fact, a question included in the February 27
(1 975) referendum asking the people to indicate their position on whether they
would want to empower the President or not with the task of appointing local
officials after the expiration of their term on December 31, 1975, was the
handiwork of Kokoy. This was fed by Kokoy to the late Secretary De Vega and
Secretary of Local Government Rono, a recommendee of Kokov, who formed
the draft of the questions for the referendum for submission by President
Marcos to the Commission on Elections. Of course, the "vote of the people"
was "overwhelmingly" in favor of granting the President the power to appoint
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
the successors of the local officials. Subsequently, at the instigation of Kokoy,
Dr. De Vega and Rono drafted the text of a Letter of Instructions (No. 265)
which created a 12-man performance audit team headed by, of course, Rono,
to make recommendations to the President on who among the local officials -
provincial governors, city and municipal councilors — should be re-appointed,
or replaced, and who should replace those to be canned. It is a foregone
conclusion that, outside the llocano area proper, the recommendees of Rono
will be the men handpicked by Kokoy. That is the kind of report that would suit
the ambitions of Kokoy to gain control of the local governments — away from
the llocanos and the military officials who would swing to the llocanos in the
event of the President's demise.
The operations of Kokoy, the third member of the unholy trinity, both in the
Philippines and elsewhere abroad, is something to marvel about. When Kokoy
is in the United States or anywhere else, nobody, but nobody, not even Marcos
can call him. Everytime the President instructs the agent on duty at the Study
Room's communication center to call Kokoy, the agent on duty has to call up
somebody first and then that somebody notifies Kokoy who, in turm, contacts
the President. "Don't call me, I'll call you!" is the apparent posture of Kokoy. In
the United States, it is Al Mamaed, Kokoy's driver bodyguard and confidant,
who must first be contacted by the Palace's agent on duty before the former
notifies Kokoy.
Kokoy is moving in rather hurriedly on local governments and other
sensitive government offices, like the General Auditing Commission, the
Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. His long range
objective is to solidify his hold on these offices so that he could draw on their
support in the event of a confrontation with the military upon the removal of
Marcos from the seat of dictatorship.
Kokoy's influence right now with the civil arm of government is quite
enormous already, and he seeks to expand such influence further by the
methodical use of his vantage position and qualities as a compulsive intriguer.
Men who otherwise should work for good government, like Clave, De Vega and
others both fear and hate him because he virtually runs so many things from
behind the scenes, and without him, certain power structures in the martial
regime would collapse. He acquired such influence because he had succeeded
in leading government officials to believe that, if they did not cooperate with
Kokoy, Imelda would go after them.
The most telling example of this Imelda-Kokoy operation is the
unceremonious dismissal of Undersecretary of Munitions Manuel Salientes last
September 21, 1975. Salientes was known as the "businessman" of the
defense department by reason of the fact that he is the over-all arms and
equipment buying official of DND. Salientes incurred the ire of Kokoy when he
summarily rejected a representation made by Imelda's brother that the DND
buy its electronic equipment, worth millions of dollars, from a company
designated by the Leyte governor. Salientes pointed out that another company
had earlier offered a lower quotation for the DND requisition. Salientes refused
to bow to repeated demands of Kokoy that the DND official change his position
on the procuremental deal - on pain of being removed from his vital DND
position.
The ruthlessness of this third member of the unholy trinity in Malacanang
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
is known all over the country. It was his insolence of power that caused partially
my disaffection with the dictatorship of Marcos. Teodoro F. Valencia, an
institution in Philippine media (the free and the controlled), has had to suffer the
insolence of Kokoy almost daily at the coffee shop of the Hotel Intercontinental
in Makati, Rizal. The most surprising thing about it all is why Valencia has to
stand Kokoy. I really wonder when Kaka (Valencia) would tell Kokoy to his face
to "go to hell."
Kokoy, however, reserves some real harsh treatment for the former
hirelings of Ted Lewin. He has never felt himself fully satisfied with the initial
scolding he had given (right after the martial law proclamation) to Ted Lewin's
hirelings. Kokoy feels he can never fully avenge himself on Lewin's hirelings
who threw him out of the Lewin-run supper club along Roxas Boulevard
because he could not settle his gambling debts.
If Kokoy's thirst for vengeance is unquenchable, his quest for power seems
unending. And in doing so, he had somehow betrayed, the little regard which
he has for his brother-in-law, Ferdinand, in moments when he wanted to
impress people around him on the power he could wield, Kokoy would tell them
that he could get Marcos to "do anything I want." "Kayang kaya naming
paikutan ni Meldy si boss. Hawak namin "yan sa bayag." (Meldy and I can run
circles around Marcos. We hold him by the balls.)
It is true that the in-laws and the close blood kins of the President are
scared of the Apo. However, in-law Kokoy has managed to run circles around
the President because he has developed an SOP for the agents and security
people on duty to implement when Marcos looks for him.
Why the intricate communications system involving Kokoy? One reason is
that he wants to impress a lot of people. Another is that — he does not want to
be caught with his pants down in New York. Kokoy really has to hide from so
many people, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation; he also has got a
lot of things, tiny delicate two-legged creatures in the United States. I didn't
realize that the President's brother-in-law, who amasses wealth by squealing
on the philandering of Dictator Marcos to the First Lady, has a harem in New
York until my trip to that city in October-November, 1 974. I discovered this from
one member of his harem, now almost a neglected woman who in a moment
of emotional need violated her fidelity to Kokoy, with my humble self as a co-
conspirator. Kokoy's harem is supported by public funds, presumably part of it
coming from the American taxpayers themselves who contribute to the tune of
ONE HUNDRED MILLION ($100,000,000.00) DOLLARS by way of US aid to
the Philippines. Kokoy has a girl in every major Philippine office or agency in
the United States; they are at his beck and call whenever he travels to their
respective areas.
Kokoy has two girls in the offices of the Philippine Mission to the United
Nations. One of them is a girl estranged from her husband in Manila who
sometimes serves as an assistant to Fe Roa, the First Lady's girl Friday,
whenever Mrs. Marcos is in the New York area. The punning most often
expressed among us who were working with and/or for Kokoy is that the girl
was a doubly "good secretary." In the morning, so the punning goes, she says.
"It's morning already sir" to Kokoy. and then a few minutes later says "Good
morning, Ma'am" to Imelda.
Kokoy also has two girl friends in the Philippine Consulate General in New
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
York, one of them also a married woman, both of them are personally protected
by Ambassador Ernesto Pineda, the consul general, as part of his duties for the
sock-less governor of Leyte. He found another place where he could exile one
of his Philippine girls when the Philippine Center was opened in New York in
November. The girl, who used to be a receptionist in one of the big hotels in
Manila, came to New York to work at the restaurant of Nora V. Daza in the
center.
But the more notorious affair of Kokoy in New York is his involvement with
Mrs. Baby A.F., wife of a doctor - son of a famous surgeon - who is residing in
New York with her five children. Baby is the daughter of a millionaire now in
self-exile in the United States, and also residing in New York. This international
love affair of Kokoy with Baby A.F. is the one thing that forced Juliet Gomez,
daughter of rich hacenderos from Negros and Pampanga provinces, to leave
the conjugal home she had built (largely from her resources) after they got
married in 1958. Kokoy and Juliet met at the Lyceum of the Philippines where
they both took up college courses.
When in New York, Kokoy usually becomes very partial to Baby A.F. in
comparison with other girls he maintains, or pretends to be in love with, in the
great American city of New York. He does not even take pains to shield this
affair from Filipinos in New York. Kokoy usually takes Baby A.F. out to dinner
at Club 21 , the Stork Club, and at times to the Plaza Hotel, in the company of
Patty Araneta and Pichy Boo Prieto. Pichy is usually accompanied by her
American boy friend when she goes out with the Kokoy pair, obviously fearful
that Kokoy would not hesitate to annex her into his New York harem. At one
time, when the group ordered expensive dishes from the Stork Club, the
American boy friend of Pichy, true to his upbringing, offered to pay part of the
food bill to ease his conscience. Kokoy cut him off, saying: "You don't pay, the
Filipino people pay for my expenses anywhere!"
Kokoy and Baby A.F. do not make any bones about their illicit relationship.
They have openly made trips together to Las Vegas, San Francisco and other
beautiful spots in the United States as husband and wife. Kokoy even sleeps in
Baby A.F.’s apartment when he does not feel like taking Baby A. F. to his
luxurious suite at the Hotel Carlyle. At one time, during a Christmas period,
Kokoy was almost caught by A.F.'s husband in Baby's apartment and he had
to run through the backdoor to avoid an ugly scene with the pendejo. A.F.'s
husband usually visits Baby and her five children at Christmas time, and Kokoy
just did not have that foresight to avoid Baby's apartment at that time. Perhaps,
he had become so callous in a dramatic exemplification of the insolence of
power that marks his personal behavior.
It is the immorality of their, respective lives, their bankrupt morals, that bind,
as a matter of fact, the three members of the unholy trinity in Malacanang.
Just what is the rationale for the metamorphosis of a man into a dictator?
In the case of Ferdinand E. Marcos, it started from the time he decided to
snuff out the life of Julio Nalundasan, followed by his bitterness over his murder
trial and the realization that he had failed to commit a perfect crime in shooting
down Nalundasan. Then, realizing that the ghost of Nalundasan would continue
to haunt him, along with the newer ghost of his scandals and misdeeds in the
office of the President which he had demeaned, Marcos sought to cover up all
these by a headlong plunge into dictatorship.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
In the December 1975 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine what had long
been rumored in the Philippines was finally confirmed.
An article reported that Imelda 46, wife of Philippine Dictator 58, is one of
the 10 richest women in the world.
She was listed along with Queen Elizabeth of England, Queen Juliana of
The Netherlands, Christina Onassis of Greece, the Duchess of Alba, Madeliene
Dessault of France, The Begum or widow of Aga Khan, Barbara Hutton, Doris
Duke and Dina Merrill.
In the same month that the article came out, the Philippine celebrity, while
basking under the glory of the report, flew back to New York City where
columnist Earl Wilson reported on December 15: "x x x Playing it like a queen
Philippine First Lady Marcos gave costly baubles (diamonds and pearls) to
party guests Monique Van Vooren, Rudolf Nureyev and Van Cliburn. ." between
champagne.
Nobody therefore can question the veracity of the Cosmopolitan magazine
article on her wealth. That Imelda Marcos is indeed one of the world's 1 0 richest
women, she herself has not denied.
Being wife of a chief of state, illegally though in power he may be, it may
seem natural to her fellow-international jetsetters that she is a rich woman, but
to Filipinos who know her background, where she came from and how she
started, this feeling is not shared.
Manglapus, leader of the Philippine opposition in the United States,
succinctly reported that "If Imelda is the richest woman in the world today it is
because Marcos is the biggest thief!"
Indeed, if Marcos is the biggest thief, then he must also be the richest man
in the world today.
Which brings us to the big question, how on earth did Imelda Marcos amass
such wealth? What is the story of her rise from rags to riches?
In 1970 Chit Pedrosa, former staff member of The Manila Chronicle, after
two years of research, provided part of the answer when she came up with a
very revealing book, the Untold Story of Imelda Marcos.
It traced Imelda Marcos' history, ancestry, and fabulous rise from the gutter
to wealth and fame, complete with official records, eyewitness accounts, and
family photos.
For writing that book, the writer was sued for libel and hounded out of the
Philippines. She is now living in exile in England, like a few other Filipino
journalists who have incurred the wrath of the Marcoses and who are now also
living in exile abroad.
Imelda Marcos was always a big question mark from the time she was
born on July 2, 1927, in Manila. Her baptismal certificate at the San Miguel
Cathedral was unsigned by the parish priest.
Until 1938, she lived in a garage in San Miguel district, just walking
distance to Malacanang Palace, with her mother and kid brother Kokoy.
Imelda's family tree goes back to her grandfather Daniel Rongialdez of
Pandacan, Manila, who married Trinidad Lopez of Ermita, Manila. They bore
three sons - Norberto, Miguel, and Vicente.
Norberto had a son Norberto Jr. who later became secretary of labor,
Miguel produced two sons — Daniel who became speaker of the House of
Representatives, and Eduardo who is now Philippine ambassador to the U.S.,
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
while Vicente became the father of Imelda.
Of the three sons, Vicente, or Imelda's father, was the poorest or the least
known of the Romualdezes.
Interestingly, Imelda was only a daughter of Vicente Romualdez by a
second marriage. Her father's first wife, Acereda, of Leyte had died and left him
five children - Vicente Jr., Lourdes, Dulce, Victoria and Francisco.
Later Vicente married Imelda's mother. Vicente's new set of children
included, aside from Imelda, the now Leyte Governor Benjamin or Kokoy, Alita,
Alfredo, Armando and Conchita.
Under this mixed situation, Imelda's father was caught in the crossfire of
family squabbles between his dominant children by the first marriage and his
wife and children by the second marriage to which Imelda unfortunately
belonged.
In addition to this, Vicente Romualdez was buried in debts, his house being
heavily mortgaged and unpaid.
Inevitably Imelda's parents themselves quarreled, later became estranged,
forcing her mother to move out of their house at General Solano in San Miguel,
Manila, and live in its garage.
There Imelda lived with her sick and fragile mother, her kid brother Kokoy,
and their ever faithful maid from Leyte named Estrella who took care of Imelda
since she was born.
Imelda underwent this kind of life as a child sustained only by dwindling
allowances from her father and what little her poor mother could earn outside
despite her bad physical condition.
Her mother worked like a slave to make both ends meet, aggravated by her
continuing disagreements with her husband and his children by his first
marriage.
From this situation, Imelda, in effect, never enjoyed the love of a father, the
warmth of home, and perhaps not even the personal care of her mother who
was always trying to make a living.
It was their maid, Estrella, who spent more time with her. caring for her,
and attending to her needs.
Then, as fate had it, one night her mother returned home to their garage
with a high fever. Complicated by her emotional distress, the poor woman finally
passed away.
Imelda's mother died sick and heart-broken. That was in 1 938 when Imelda
was only nine years old.
Thus twice in a row - first her father's first wife Acereda, and now her own
mother Remedios died. too.
The tragedy-stricken Vicente Romualdez, to try to forget his big family's sad
fate, sold his General Solano house in Manila and returned to Leyte. He brought
with him his two sets of orphaned children by his two marriages.
Once again Imelda was forced to live with her dominant step brothers and
sisters older than her.
What ran in Imelda's mind then, under such miserable family situation, was
to be revealed years later when she grew up to be a woman.
But somehow at the age of 16, Imelda, gifted with natural beauty, became
the Muse of T acloban, Leyte. After she acquired her BSE degree from St. Paul's
College there, she taught at a local Chinese High School.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
At this time, she was said to have a rich Chinese boyfriend. But she
dropped him when she returned to Manila, city of her birth and miserable
childhood, and lived in the house of her cousin. Rep. Romualdez, who later
became House speaker.
Now a ripe woman, Imelda first worked as a salesgirl at the P.E. Domingo
Piano and Music store at the Escolta in Manila. She would stand inside and
wait for customers. Her duty also included singing the lyrics of musical pieces
to prospective patrons.
During the time of Mayor Arsenio II. Lacson of Manila, he sponsored her
candidacy for "Miss Manila" but she lost to the representative of the
International Fair, Norma Jimenez.
For some reason, the city executive protested the result of the beauty
contest. As a compromise, it was amended with Imelda being awarded the
consolation prize of "Muse of Manila" title.
But the publicity over the beauty contest controversy put her in the limelight
for the first time.
Inevitably she had some suitors. Her ideal type was Justo Zibal who had
courted her in Leyte. He was tall, dark, and with deep set eyes.
Now that Imelda was in Manila, she finally settled for Ariston Nakpil, an
architect, son of Juan Nakpil and the former Anita Noble, pre-war Miss
Philippines, and brother of Edita Nakpil, post-war Miss Philippines.
Ariston studied at the Fountainbleu School of Fine Arts in France and was
estranged from his wife, but Imelda accepted him as her steady boyfriend and
they dated.
Imelda landed a job at the Central Bank and received a salary of 250 pesos
a month. She was assigned to the Intelligence Division. Her duty included filing
cards, indexing and recording official documents.
While off duty, she served as a governess and girl Friday of the Daniel
Romualdezes.
One late evening in 1954 while accompanying Mrs. Romualdez to
Congress to fetch her husband. Speaker Romualdez, Imelda and then Rep.
Ferdinand Marcos of llocos Norte, met at the capitol building's cafeteria on the
basement floor.
To the young llocano it appeared to be love at first sight, although he had
already acquired the reputation of a lothario, being then a rising congressman
who emerged from World War II as the country's allegedly most decorated
soldier but whose medals were said to have been obtained through forgery and
misrepresentation.
As narrated in his biographical book, For Every Tear A Victory, Marcos had
himself introduced to Imelda by fellow-Rep. Jacobo Gonzales of Laguna, an old
guerrilla buddy.
"Would you mind standing up?" Marcos requested Imelda. Puzzled, the 36-
23-35 bundle of a woman complied. He stood back to back with her, measured
their heights with his hand, and verified that he was at least a half-inch taller
than her — on low heels and unpiled hair.
Suspicious of what the young congressman was up to, the Romualdezes
quickly spirited Imelda away.
The next day at her Central Bank office desk she received two red roses
— one in full bloom and the other in tight bud. When she opened the note she
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
learned it came from Marcos.
It said: "Everything is so rosy. I wonder why." When her office mates saw
the roses they teased her. They told her that in the llocano courtship custom,
the bud denoted her tightly closed un-awareness of what was about to blossom,
while the open rose symbolized his mature love and flat declaration of marriage.
Without her knowledge then, the young Marcos was actually employing his
now famous blitzkrieg tactics. He pursued her up to Baguio where he refused
to accept no for an answer.
Eleven days after they had met and following a whirlwind courtship,
Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Romualdez were married in Baguio City before
Judge Jose Maria Chanco.
But when they planned for their Catholic Church marriage a hitch
developed. They could not be wedded there because he was not a Catholic,
having been born an Aglipayan.
His father Mariano was a leader of Gregorio Aglipay, founder of the
religious sect, Philippine Independent Church or Aglipayan, for short.
So arrangement was hastily made to have Congressman Marcos, at the
late age, be formally converted to Catholicism. He was baptised a Catholic.
Thus Imelda Marcos, whose own baptismal certificate was unsigned by the
parish priest in San Miguel Cathedral Church in 1929, became the wife of a
man whose baptism was made out of convenience.
It was in effect a church wedding between a man and a woman whose
religious upbringings were both a big question mark, if not a fraud.
Is it any wonder then that when Imelda Marcos became the First Lady of
the Land, and now wife of the First Filipino Dictator, she would also lead a highly
questionable life?
Is it surprising also that although she started very poor, an ill-starred
daughter of a sick and heart-broken woman who once lived in a garage, worked
as a salesgirl, would now be what she is today - one of the world's richest
women?
As a footnote to Imelda Romualdez-Marcos' rise from rags to riches, it is
pertinent to mention here, in order to get a glimpse of her true character as a
person, what happened after she became First Lady.
Imelda returned to Tacloban, Leyte, where she grew up to be a young
woman before she finally found her place in Manila. It was like a triumphal
return.
Now surrounded by her Blue Ladies and many other girl Fridays, of which
once upon a time she was herself one, she failed or refused to recognize a now
old woman named Estrella.
The stranger approached her, wanted to greet her, if only for old time's
sake. After all, she was the maid who used to take care of her when she was a
child.
But Imelda did not recognize her, or refused to recognize her. She went
about her way as if she had never seen Estrella, as if the very woman who took
care of her never existed at all.
Then there was Adoracion Reyes, a voice teacher at the Philippine
Women's University in Manila, who used to coach her when she was studying
how to sing.
Reyes also was her constant companion when she aspired to be Miss
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Manila, getting pointers here and there. But when she became First Lady did
Imelda recognize her? No.
She actually made some kind of a valid request for help. After all, Imelda
owed her a favor. It was only fair that she got her help now that Reyes needed
it and Imelda could afford it. But Imelda said no.
So what kind of a person is Imelda Marcos?
Perhaps the case of her own mother can provide a more convincing
answer. Her grave at North Cemetery in Manila up to now reportedly remains
unmarked and unmourned.
Did Imelda Marcos, who now lives in her own Cinderella fairy tale, shut off
her dark past? Was she ashamed of her own mother who was just an agraciada
or kitchen helper?
Could she not bear the thought that she once lived in a garage in a, hand
to mouth existence that eventually contributed to her mother's death when she
was only nine?
Have the tears long dried that now she has a heart like stone, perhaps even
mad that she cannot be proud of her own dark past, that such a past is really
embarrassing now that she is rich and famous?
Or when Imelda Marcos came of age, with the bitter memory of her
mother's death and miserable childhood fresh in her memory, like Scarlet
O’Hara in David O. Selznick's American Civil War epic "Gone With the Wind,"
did she vow then, "I swear I'll never go hungry again!"?
However, Imelda is not content with self-assurance that she would never
go hungry again. She wants to acquire and display hard physical evidence on
her magical transformation from a poor, wretched girl into a most affluent
woman; she would undertake activities to demonstrate that, too.
For instance, during the wedding of Princess Anne, to which Imelda
wangled an invitation, the First Lady wanted to wear a diamond tiara atop her
head, but she was told that she could not because she was not of royal blood.
So Imelda ordered a "chignon" hairdo (nagpusod) and wore the diamond tiara
behind her head.
In her mad desire to behave as a royal-blooded conjugal ruler of the
Philippines, Imelda makes it a point to attend all coronations of minor kings and
other discarded royalties.
She has succeeded in drawing world attention to her ill-gotten wealth.
Witness this newspaper accounts
(*2. “Suzy Says column, New York Daily News, Feb 9, page 12.)
THE PEARL OF THE PHILIPPINES
The chic thing to do just now is to nip off to Manila to visit Madame
Imelda Marcos, wife of the President of the Philippines, who's wildly
generous, if she likes you, and the very essence of hospitality. Madame
Marcos practically flings Philippine pearls to her friends, and they get to
keep everything they find in their closets upon arrival (clothes that
somehow fit, gorgeous caftans, etc.) After a stay like that, you leave the
Islands humming the scenery.
The latest chums to visit Madam are CeeZee and Winston Guest and
Mrs. Henry Ford II, otherwise Christina, Imelda's bosom buddy. After
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
they've knocked off Manila, they and Madame Marcos will fly to Katmandu,
Nepal, in the Marcos private jet, to see the coronation of King Birendra,
who else?
Or, this dispatch by Bernard Weinraub on the Birendra coronation: *3
(*3. “Reporter’s Notebook: Nepal Coronation Lured the World's Partygoers - Invited or Not.”
The New York Times, Feb 28, 1 975.)
If the coronation was a theatrical drama. King Birendra would, of
course, be the star. But the two figures who virtually upstaged him were
Prince Charles and Mrs. Marcos. The striking wife of the Philippine
President arrived here with an entourage that included a secretary, a
military aide and a bodyguard, as well as Mrs. Ford and the Christian N.
Barnards, who had been in the Philippines for the opening of a hospital for
heart surgery.
Diplomats and journalists were somewhat awed and dazzled by Mrs.
Marcos' flawless tactics for keeping herself firmly in the spotlight. At the
morning coronation and at a tent on the parade group in the afternoon she
managed to sit beside Prince Charles. "She's certainly keeping Charles
amused," said a British correspondent. She keeps talking and Charles
keeps saying, "Really? Really?"
With the foreign press and many photographers behind a rope outside
the tent, waiting, bored, for the King to arrive on an elephant, Mrs. Marcos
abruptly decided to take a walk. She opened her white parasol with
Princess Michiko, walked for several yards. They were soon joined by
Prince Charles, and the photographers used up rolls of film.
"At these receptions, Mrs. Marcos always manages to arrive at the
right moment, the most dramatic time," said the wife of one senior
diplomat. "She's quite formidable, you know." (Italics supplied.)
Popular San Francisco columnist Herb Caen wrote of the event from another
angle, thus: *4 (*4. San Francisco Chronicle, March 11, 1975, page 22.)
ADD SOCIAL NOTES: A conspicuous consumption award to Mrs.
Ferdinand Marcos, wife of the Pres, of the Philippines, who attended the
coronation of King Birendra in Nepal with an entourage of 80, including
six hairdressers and Christina Ford, wife of the Santa Barbara playboy.
The Marcos group arrived in four government jets, one of which flew back
to Manila to pick up food for her group. Have I been underestimating
Filipino fare all these years?
If newsman Weinraub thought that the "scene-stealing" shows of Mrs.
Marcos were "abrupt" decisions, he has another thing coming. All activities of
Mrs. Marcos are pre-programmed as image-building moves; even the way she
should dress up or move her hands and wave on given occasions are well-
rehearsed.
For instance, Mrs. Marcos appearance at the inauguration of the
Philippine Center in New York on November 14 was well programmed. Even
the matter of neutralizing, the Manglapus demonstrations was planned with the
cooperation of officials of the Miss Universe Pageant at the MUP offices in New
York. Kokoy Romualdez, Secretary of Tourism Jose D. Aspiras, Ambassador
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Ernest Pineda, Col. Barangan, Col. Romeo Ochoco, Press Counsellor
Alejandro del Rosario and I attended the conference at the MUP offices. We
came up with the following draft of a "strategy" to neutralize the Manglapus
demonstration:
Talk Strategy with Picketers
Friends would be strategically located on the East side of the street.
Friends would approach the picketers and engage them in conversation.
We will try to keep their attention away from the action across the street if
necessary.
Talk to Newsmen
If local newsmen ask questions of the picketers the Friends would barge
in and ask of the newsmen an American's opinion of the Philippines having
returned from five weeks visit.
Contact News Executives
News stations would do a story of Pre-Opening, Pre-Interview and
Opening especially with the involvement of so important a personality as
we are discussing.
New York news-hounds are a special breed and do not like to be led
astray. The mere mention of "at the opening there might be some clowns
with pickets" told in a straight forward manner and with security thrown in
for good measure, might completely divert their attention away from the
picketers to only the main story - The opening of the building.
Package offered to the News Executives
Pre-Opening - A tour of the building with the First Lady on a pool basis or
exclusive.
The Opening - If ribbon cutting outside between 4 pm and 8 pm is still the
desired approach, supplemental lighting would be required for the dusk
and dark event. A small generator would be required for good picture
quality of the celebrities. Newsfilm crews on a daily basis use "sun gun"
equipment. This necessitates tight shots. Newsfilm crews would use. "sun
gun" equipment across the street questioning picketers (few people in
picture, not full demonstration, due to darkness).
Adding Screen of Vegetation
Adding large pots (same type as directly across the street) with; Philippine
National Vegetation for the event would screen off the main event from the
picketers across the street.
Rush Hour
The normal rush hour of buses, taxis and other vehicles also screen off
main event and picketers across the street not only by traffic but by noise
level.
Bus Screen
Get permission to park special charter buses for dignitary arrival and
departure in front of the building.
Primitivo Mijares Page 142.
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Cafe Manila visits
Friends can visit to try and overhear any discussion of the opening event.
In so small a place hard to do especially if the same people keep coming
back.
Actually, in the matter of gaining publicity mileage and an improved press
image abroad, the unholy trinity in the Philippines would go to any length, spare
no expense. They would wine, dine and whatever visiting media people.
An instance where the Philippine dictatorship had invested so much is that
of Ms. Elizabeth Day. In the two trips that Ms. Day made to the Philippines,
while I was still with the martial regime, I know that her transportation and hotel
expenses were paid for by the Philippine government, specifically by the
Department of Public Information. In turn, she has written a favorable book on
martial law and a complimentary article in the Reader's Digest on Mrs. Marcos.
The book that author Ms. Day produced on President Marcos was a form
of propitiation or offering by Romulo to salvage his faltering image before the
conjugal dictatorship. Ms. Day, a close and intimate friend of Romulo, went to
the Philippines with all expenses paid by the government on the
recommendation of Romulo. The good general even recommended that Ms.
Day be made a house guest of the conjugal dictatorship.
But for some reason or other, the First Lady didn't think it wise to have her
as a house guest. In any case, she was billeted in a. handsome suite at the
Hotel Intercontinental. Kokoy made sure that the Department of Public
Information would foot Ms. Day's bill.
Kokoy assigned me to attend to the requirements of Ms. Day on news
gathering, but I soon found out that it was the desire of Secretary Romulo that
he be left alone to attend to Beth. I decided to make the good secretary of
foreign affairs jealous or suspicious, at least. On the day Ms. Day had an 11
a.m. appointment to interview the First Lady, I prevailed upon Ms. Day to ride
in my car to Malacanang instead of waiting for Romulo's car. I told her that
traffic was awful this particular time of the day and that she might be late for her
appointment with the First Lady. Since I only wanted to make Romulo a little
jealous, but not kill him with it, I instructed the doorman at the Hotel
Intercontinental in Makati, Rizal, to inform the secretary when he arrived that
Ms. Day and I have gone ahead of him.
We had been inside the Malacanang reception hall only about 10 minutes
when I noticed Gen. Romulo panting his way up the stairs. He immediately
grabbed Ms. Day's tape recorder from me and said he would carry it for Beth
going into the Music Room for the interview with the First Lady.
After the interview, the First Lady turned to Secretary Romulo and, with her
usual play-acting of touching her chest with her open right hand palm and
making a dejected look towards heaven, asked how she fared in the interview
with Ms. Day.
"Oh, don't worry Mrs. Marcos. I'll edit whatever she writes about you. In
fact, I might write it myself from memory," Gen. Romulo quickly answered. As
a matter of fact anybody can write about what the First Lady said to Ms. Day
for there was really nothing spectacular in her answers.
The truth, however, was that Ms. Day wasn't going to write anything about
the First Lady. She only wanted to talk to the President and Mrs. Marcos to
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
'acquire some scenario for the real thing which brought her to the Philippines:
An assignment from Readers Digest to write a full-length article on the car
accident Romulo had a year before martial law, and his miraculous recovery.
Romulo never told either the President or the First Lady about the real
purpose of Ms. Day's trip to Manila. But she was candid about it to me.
An irritated President Marcos sought to "punish" his foreign secretary for
bringing in an American writer at the expense of the conjugal dictatorship to
gather materials for a story that was just for the personal glorification of the
general at a time when the main preoccupation of the propaganda machine
was to deify the ruling duumvirate.
Since he had also consented to an interview by Ms. Day the following day,
Marcos gave specific instructions that Romulo was not to be admitted into the
Palace on the day of the interview. "Ms. Day will interview me alone!" the
President told the appointments secretary.
Following the President's cue, Secretary Tatad then telephoned
Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Manuel Collantes to tell him that CPR was to
be "kept busy on something else somewhere" at the time of the interview. It so
happened that the President had a speaking engagement before a group which
would discuss foreign policy among others, but which the President had
previously assigned to Collantes. Tatad told Collantes that it was the desire of
the President that he pass on the assignment to the unknowing secretary of
foreign affairs - just to keep him away from the Palace during the day of the
interview.
But to make sure that CPR would not come barging into the Palace after
delivering the speech for the President, Dictator Marcos told the appointments
secretary, Minister Mariano Ruiz, that he would have no callers for that day
except Ms. Day.
Romulo didn't attempt to get inside the Palace that day, perhaps having
sensed the conspiracy to separate him from Ms. Day or that he just decided to
be prudent for which he was noted. In any case, he would have been turned
down in the. first sentry gate, if he had tried to get into the Palace that day.
Somehow, CPR got to find out that the First Couple were sore at him over the
Day trip. Ever the adjustable diplomat, Romulo came up to the Palace on
another occasion to inform the President casually that he was deep at work on
Miss Day, convincing her to write a full-length book on the New Society. On her
next trip around, Ms. Day was billeted at the Manila Hilton - all expense paid by
the DPI again - as she gathered materials for her book, which was later on
published under the title of Philippines: A Shattered Showcase of Democracy.
Chapter IX
Too late the hero
Ferdinand E. Marcos has done nothing right for the Filipino people. His legal
presidency (1966 to 1972) and unconstitutional martial law reign have brought
about nothing but a confused policy built on a quicksand of hypocrisy, double
standards, plain lies and corruption.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Marcos is just a tinpot dictator whose lust for power knows no limit.
Everywhere one may gaze, he would see nothing but a vast river of hypocrisy
and deception about building of a New Society. Democracy, to which Marcos
pays lip service every now and then, is headed into a mist of might-have-been.
In early years, we used to brand the Communists as having a monopoly of
the ability to prevaricate. Not anymore since the advent of Marcos.
One must not be prepared to assume the sincerity of the statements of
Marcos and his readiness to abide by the few fundamental rules of intellectual
honesty. He has lied himself blue in the face to achieve a desired rhetorical
effect. And lying is almost the best of the weapons he is prepared to deploy on
behalf of his grim faith.
And yet, because he is not an avowed Communist, Americans are willing
to take wildly optimistic assumption of his sincerity and intellectual honesty.
One of the few persons who apparently foresaw the kind of life that Marcos
would fashion out for the Filipinos was former Manila Mayor Arsenio H. Lacson.
He preferred to die than see Marcos subjugate the Filipino people.
"Di puta gid, yawa. (Damn that s.o.b.) If that guy ever becomes President,
God save the Philippines!" swore the irrepressible Lacson, the best mayor
Manila ever had and the best President the Philippines never had.
"Why, hijo, what has come to you? You are swearing at 7 o'clock in the
morning, and you haven't even had a drink yet?" asked the slowly awakening
Luchi Lacson, wife of the Manila mayor. Luchi belonged to that rare variety of
politicians' wives whose sense of delicadeza told her to maintain a prudent
distance between her bedroom and the Office of the Mayor of Manila. She
would not even recommend a simple job-seeker to her husband, if it meant
interfering in the affairs of the government at City Hall.
Unmindful of Luchi's questioning, Lacson continued his early morning
monologue, "That bastard is crazy, if he thinks that people have forgotten that
he killed Nalundasan. I know that he did, and 1 0 angels and 1 0 fatherly Laurels
telling me that Ferdinand Marcos did not do it would not change my mind. I
know it, I was a part of his defense panel".
Luchi caught on the angry monologue, and herself asked rhetorical
questions: You mean Ferdinand Marcos has declared that he is seeking the
presidency of the Philippines? Did he say he was joking, Arsenio? At this point,
Lacson finally took notice of his wife, and faced her. “Yes, hija, that pug-nosed
killer of Nalundasan had the gall to come here and proposition me into teaming
up with him for a crack at the leadership of this country".
It was on an early morning in late March, 1957, hardly had a shocked and
grieving nation buried its most beloved of all Presidents, Ramon F. Magsaysay,
when Ferdinand E. Marcos paid a visit to Lacson at the latter's residence on M.
Earnshaw Street in Sampaloc, Manila. Marcos, then completing his second
term as congressman for second district of llocos Norte, said he was advised
by "Papa Laurel" to propose to Lacson the formation of a "dream presidential
ticket" which would have the support of the politically-powerful Laurel clan.
"Yes, padre, I will subordinate myself to you. I will be your vice presidential
running mate — on one condition, that you will pledge not to seek reelection, if
our team wins." Lacson quoted Marcos as having stated to him during their
conference at Lacson's underground den at his M. Earnshaw residence.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
"Oh, no, wait a minute. Ferdinand. I really would want to serve this country
as President one of these days. But, if the condition is that you will be my Vice
President, forget it. I love life, too, and I want to live a little longer, while serving
my people. Don't ever think that I have forgotten the sharp aim of that man who
felled Nalundasan with a single rifle shot. In these days of the telescopic sight,
my God, I may hardly have the time to take my oath as President before my
own Vice President guns me down with that deadly aim of yours. Oh, no,
Ferdinand, forget it."
"Padre, puro ka biro, eh. Kalimutan mo na iyan kalokohan natin, nakaraan
na iyon (Padre, you are always joking. Let's forget the past mischiefs)", cut in
Marcos.
Lacson boomed: "I am not kidding, Ferdinand. I will not do anything which
would in any way help you become President of this country. As a matter of
fact, I make you this promise. You can become President of this country only
over my dead body!"
Lacson was still fuming mad over the Marcos proposition long after the
llocos Norte congressman had left the M. Earnshaw residence.
"Salbahe talaga itong si Marcos. (This guy Marcos is really a scheming
deadly man). Just because I was ahead of him with Imelda, he wants to get
even with me in a most complicated manner!" Lacson would declare
occasionally in recalling the Marcos visit to his house, and with a mischievous
look on his Visayan face, would add: "Of course, if I should be President, and
Marcos is my No. 2 man, then maybe I can requisition the Vice President's lady
once in a while." *1
(* 1 . Lacson died on April 15, 1962 of apparent heart attack. At the time, he was already being
groomed by the Nacionalista leadership to become the party's presidential candidate in 1 965, while
incumbent President Macapagal was being egged by Marcos to make good his pledge to support
Marcos for the Liberal party presidential nomination.)
At that time, the nation had just very little knowledge of the workings of the
heart and mind of Marcos.
The shot that catapulted Marcos for the first time into national notoriety was
fired, according to a trial court, on September 21, 1935. Marcos, according to
later findings of the trial court, gunned down reelected Assemblyman Julio
Nalundasan.
Nalundasan was a perennial political rival of the father of Ferdinand,
Mariano Marcos. Julio Nalundasan and Mariano Marcos, both of Batac, llocos
Norte, were rival candidates for the office of representative for the second
district of said province in the elections of 1934. Nalundasan was elected. The
term for which Nalundasan was elected was, however, cut short as a result of
the approval of the 1935 Constitution under which the general elections for
members of the National Assembly were by law set for September 1 7, 1 935. In
the general elections, Julio Nalundasan and Mariano Marcos resumed their
political rivalry and were opposing candidates for assemblyman in the same
district. In the strife, Nalundasan again came out triumphant over Marcos. In
the afternoon of September 19, 1935, in celebration of Nalundasan's victory, a
number of his followers and partymen paraded in cars and trucks through the
municipalities of Qirrirnao, Paoay and Batac, llocos Norte, and passed in front
of the house of the Marcoses. One of the trucks in the parade was so made up
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
as to appear like a hearse carrying the coffin of a dead Marcos, as if to proclaim
that Mariano Marcos was politically dead - and to be buried. The parade was
described as provocative and humiliating for the defeated candidate, Mariano
Marcos.
The assemblyman reelect, Nalundasan, was not, however, destined to reap
the fruits of his political laurels for on the night of September 21, 1935, he was
shot and killed with a single rifle shot after brushing his teeth in his house in
Batac. Newly-elected President Manuel L. Quezon was greatly disturbed by the
killing as he sensed that politics was getting to be too heated, let alone the fact
that Nalundasan was his candidate against Mariano Marcos. Quezon
subsequently sent a special team of prosecutors headed by then Fiscal Higinio
Macadaeg to handle the prosecution of the accused in the killing for the crime
of murder. The accused were Mariano Marcos, Pio Marcos , *2 Ferdinand E.
Marcos and Quirino Lizardo. The trial was presided over by Judge Roman
Cruz.*3
(*2. Pio Marcos was a younger brother of Mariano. He is currently a judge of the court of first
instance branch in Baguio City and sits as board chairman or member of several mining and
industrial corporations organized upon the imposition of martial law and which appear to be
operating profitably. It was Judge Marcos who found a complainant against Dona Josefa Edralin-
Marcos in the celebrated "Golden Buddha" case guilty of robbery, instead.)
(*3. Judge Cruz is the father of two Cruzes close to the ruling clique. They are J.V. Cruz, one time
press secretary and now ambassador to Cairo, and Roman Cruz, Jr., Manager of the Government
Service Insurance System, but better known as the principal "tong" collector of the First Lady.)
A brilliant lawyer, the late Vicente Francisco, headed the defense panel.
Two of Francisco's assistants then were young lawyers named Arsenio H.
Lacson and Estanislao A. Fernandez. At that time, Marcos was a law student
at the University of the Philippines and, after preliminary investigation, was
detained at the llocos Norte provincial jail. Coming from a prominent family and
looked upon as the up and coming personality from the North, young Marcos
was given special treatments
(*4. Fernandez turned out to be a brilliant lawyer, but he was better known for the elasticity of his
spine. He opposed Marcos originally in the Presidential elections of 1965 and then in the
Constitutional Convention, but he later accepted an appointment to the Supreme Court where he
became one of the more ardent spokesmen of the Marcos dictatorship.)
The evidence (oral and physical) against the Marcoses and Lizardo,
especially young Marcos, was strong. Young Marcos was a member of the U.P.
rifle team. Although his own rifle was found in the gun rack of the U.P. ROTC
armory, the rifle of the team captain, Teodoro M. Kalaw, Jr., was missing at the
time and NBI had evidence that it was the one used in the shooting of
Nalundasan. Among the accused, only young Ferdinand Marcos had access to
the U.P. armory. Judge Cruz found Marcos guilty of the crime of murder and
sentenced him to life imprisonment. When Marcos signified his intention to
appeal. President Quezon assigned another young lawyer, an Atenean, Leon
Ma. Guerrero who was then with the office of the Solicitor General, to handle
the government side.
In the meantime, Marcos took the bar examinations and, in spite of being
in jail, or perhaps because of it, he topped the results. With a bar topnotcher
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
defending himself on a murder conviction by a trial court, and the most brilliant
orator of his day, Leon Ma. Guererro, prosecuting for the government, the
Marcos murder case in the Supreme Court easily became the most publicized
and followed case.
Then as now, the feeling of people who had access to the matters brought
into the record is that Marcos could not have escaped imprisonment, however
lenient a court would have tried, for the murder of Nalundasan.
Fortunately for young Marcos, and unfortunately for Philipine democracy,
an up and coming jurist, Jose P. Laurel, a native of Tanauan, Batangas, but a
long time resident of the district of Paco in Manila, was a member of the
Supreme Court when the high tribunal calendared the Marcos murder case for
hearing and decision. Laurel displayed an unusual interest in the case of
Marcos and eventually preempted whatever thoughts his colleagues might
have on the case by announcing during a session "enbanc" that he himself
would pen the majority decision on the young Marcos case. Justice Laurel's
behavior raised some quizzical eyebrows, but smiles of understanding later
pervaded sessions on young Marcos' case as some members of the court
gathered it that old man Laurel was simply taking fatherly posture on young
Marcos. After all, did not young Marcos present features similar to Justice
Laurel, in height, shape of the nose, and eyes? The President has distinctive
facial features, similar to old man Laurel, and yet not found among his sisters,
Elizabeth M. Keon, and Fortuna M. Barba, nor in his other brother, Pacifico, or
half-brother, Mayor Rubio, of Pasuquin. At least, President Marcos and the First
Lady, Imelda Romualdez-Marcos, have this characteristic in common. Both the
President and the First Lady possess physical features that their brothers and
sisters after them do not have. And to stretch comparisons, neither does the
first born of Ferdinand and Imelda have the features of her brother, Ferdinand,
Jr. or sister, Irene; neither does she look like her father-President. Did not
Marcos himself direct his own biographers to point out how sharply different he
was from Mariano Marcos? "To Ferdinand, Mariano was a restless, caged and
frustrated man," Marcos of the Philippines states on page 27. "The father had
no sense of humor, which puzzled Ferdinand, whose humorous bent is sharply
cultivated, a trait encouraged by his rollicking Edralin grandsire."
Aside from whatever fatherly feelings which Justice Laurel had for young
Marcos, a feeling which he displayed anew for the young man from llocos Norte
during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, there were other
considerations that readily found acceptance amongst a skeptical people, even
President Quezon himself. During his youth. Laurel figured in a much similar
fiasco, a case of homicide. He was courting a local belle in his hometown of
Tanauan but was having a difficult time winning the girl's favor. Actually, the
young lass favored another young man, and to force the issue, Laurel
embraced the girl while the latter was taking a stroll with the other young man
at the town park. Thereafter, Laurel ran. About a week later, Laurel attended a
party where the girl and her young man were also present. When the young
man saw Laurel, he went after him with a cane. Laurel stood his ground, drew
a "balisong" (Batangas fan knife) and stabbed the fellow, killing him. Laurel was
tried and found guilty by a trial court of homicide. He appealed to the Supreme
Court. At the time, an American Jurist, George A. Malcolm, dean of the College
of Law, University of the Philippines, had just been appointed to the Supreme
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Court. Malcolm knew Laurel to be a bright young man, having been his student
at the U.P. college of law, and notwithstanding the evidence, urged his
colleagues to acquit young Laurel. Laurel had always acknowledged his debt
to society in this respect, and when the Marcos case came before him on
appeal at the Supreme Court, he saw the opportunity to repay his debt --
privately to Marcos. Laurel saw also in Marcos, not just his own physical
features, but a very promising man, perhaps a mirror of himself. Laurel thus
went individually to all the members of the Supreme Court and pleaded in tears
for the acquittal of young Ferdinand. Laurel succeeded and thus Marcos was
also acquitted by a benevolent Supreme Court and in the same way that Laurel
was given a chance by society, Marcos was given his. The difference is that,
while Laurel led his country heroically during a most difficult time under
Japanese occupation, Marcos has decided to plunder an entire country which
had given him a new lease on life.
Marcos' path in life seems to have been smiled upon by death. The death,
or killing, of certain persons provided the solutions to most of Marcos' problems.
This is not to say that Marcos himself caused their deaths.
The first case of a man's death favoring Marcos was Nalundasan’s. If Julio
had lived, Marcos would never have had a chance to rise in politics in llocos
Norte. The still baffling death of Mayor Lacson is another. A Lacson alive would
have done everything to stop Marcos from becoming Piesident in 1965. As a
matter of fact, Lacson could have been elected President in the 1 965 elections.
And then, a Lacson alive would have died fighting Marcos' imposition of martial
law in 1972.
Even after Marcos had won the Nacionalista presidential nomination in
November, 1964, he was still in a very precarious position within the NP itself.
He was just a newcomer, having been a dyed-in-the-wool Liberal until his
defection to the NP in April. 1964. However, the death of the venerable Don
Eulogio "Amang" Rodriguez, Sr. favored Marcos anew. Some say the "Amang",
who was the NP president, died of pain and sorrow because "interloper Marcos"
had won his party's presidential nomination. As the party's presidential
nominee, Marcos instantly became the NP titular head with the Amang dead.
Then, in 1969, when rival presidential candidate Sergio Osmena, Jr. had
succeeded in creating for himself the image of "The American boy," former
President Dwight D, Eisenhower died. This gave Marcos the opportunity to
attend Eisenhower's funeral and to visit then President Nixon at the White
House. When he returned to the Philippines, Marcos said, he was "Nixon's
boy."
The terroristic activities of Congressman Floro Crisologo and his private
army in llocos Sur was providing to be a national embarrassment for Marcos in
1970. Crisologo himself was rebelling against Marcos's domination of the
tobacco monopoly in the North. A solution came when the congressman was
shot dead in November, 1970, by an unidentified gunman. The assailant was
reported eliminated right after the shooting while trying to collect his fee.
Marcos was compelled, by circumstances to support former President
Garcia for the presidency of the Constitutional Convention in 1971. However,
Marcos had difficulty convincing the former President to support his proposal
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
to shift the form of government from the then existing presidential system to the
parliamentary system. Marcos' problem was resolved when Garcia died of a
heart attack on June 14, 1971, three days after his election to the Con-Con
presidency.
The real motivation for the Nalundasan murder can only be truly gleaned
into at this time — in the light of Marcos' own declaration, Marcos had nurtured
his dream of becoming a dictator of the Philippines as early as his U.P. days
when he would tell Leonilo "Noning" Ocampo, Felicisimo Ocampo and Roberto
S. Benedicto about what they should get from marriage. For his part, Marcos
said he would look for a girl coming from a rich and politically-powerful family
so he can short-circuit his travel to power. He actually sought Baby Quezon,
but things soured when he was accused on the Nalundasan murder.
Noning Ocampo was to comment wryly later, “E yon pala ay isang salesgirl
lang ang kailangan to become President,” (For all his planning, Marcos needed
only a salesgirl to help him become President!) For his tactless statement,
which had been relayed to the Palace by Imelda's spies and courtiers, Noning
Ocampo has never been forgiven by the First Lady.
The real motive then behind Nalundasan murder was the goal of Marcos to
become the dictator of the Philippmes. When the father was defeated by Julio
Nalundasan, Marcos obviously saw what could have been a political eclipse for
the Marcos family. As one who could coolly scheme in crisis, Marcos assessed
the situation and decided on the ultimate solution to the big stumbling block to
his political future: Kill Nalundasan. This was his first display of the "overkill"
type of operation for which he has acquired notoriety.
There seems to have developed for some time a nationwide Nalundasan
syndrome in the wake of first political killing in the Philippines. When people
would talk about politics, the conversation would invariably turn to
Nalundasan's murder, and end with a joking statement that one should be
careful about his political enemies, "baka ma-Nalundasan ka. (You might be
killed like Nalundasan). And it seems to have possessed Marcos himself.
Everytime he would make a speech, Marcos would characteristically make a
motion with his right hand, with the trigger finger pointing up straight. On one
occasion, Arsenio H. Lacson and Ferdinand E. Marcos, then both freshmen
members of the' House of Representatives, were engaged in a debate over
President Quirino's suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus,
when Marcos showed his mannerism of the trigger-finger pointed towards
Lacson. Lacson, then already noted for his irrepressible character, addressed
the chair, thusly: "Mr. Speaker.”
"What is the pleasure of the gentleman from the second district of Manila?"
"Mr. Speaker, I demand protection from the chair!"
"The gentleman from Manila should explain his demand for protection."
"Mr. Speaker, I demand protection from the gentleman from llocos Norte
who reminds me, every time he points his trigger finger at me, of the murder of
Nalundasan."
Marcos managed to shout, "Anak ka ng tao" (You son of a....) before the
entire hall and the gallery burst into uncontrolled laughter. Lacson was one of
the junior assistants of Vicente Francisco who handled the defense of Marcos,
et al in the murder trial.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Marcos is a sophisticated con man. He had realized early enough that
there were certain problems that nearly every Filipino, or any human being for
that matter, was beset with. And his so-called magical or charismatic power
were nothing but the ability to utter basic truisms to the right persons at the right
time.
Little did Filipinos realize that the shared madness he had for all those, who
followed him, out of conviction, necessity or convenience, would lead to the
establishment of the first imperial dynasty in Southeast Asia in this modern day
and age.
Marcos was not going to be the President of the Philippines on December
30, 1965. He did not even rate a slim chance of winning the Liberal party
presidential nomination from incumbent President Macapagal, much less the
Nacionalista presidential nomination. By 1962, he was a colorful man, but no
one was considering him seriously for the presidency in 1965. True, in the year
1962, he received all his "over due" war decorations from the Secretary of
National Defense under a Liberal administration. But most everybody
considered him a dangerous man, having been a convicted murderer of
Nalundasan. Macapagal was determined to seek reelection; he didn't feel he
should yield the LP presidential nomination to Marcos. And the Nacionalista
candidate was going to be colorful Manila Mayor Lacson. However, things
changed radically upon the death of Lacson on April 15, 1962, under very
suspicious circumstances.
At that time, President Macapagal was running amuck against the
Lopezes. What Macapagal did not know was that he was put up to it by Marcos
who had adopted, as part of his strategy, the promotion of a direct frontal clash
between Macapagal and the Lopezes. Marcos recognized at the time the
invincibility of the Lopez politico-economic machine. He had his timetable on
making the Lopezes support him.
The professional kingmakers that they were, the Lopezes, aside from
seeking Macapagal's downfall for the harm done them, wanted to really find a
candidate they could catapult to the presidency.
I was called one day to give my political assessment to Don Eugenio Lopez.
Others were similarly asked. Without hesitation. I told the old man Lopez that
Marcos was the man who could beat Macapagal.. Several months later, a
conference was convened by Lopez. Roberto S. Benedicto and Claudio
Teehankee, then both in the private practise of law and acting as legal
consultants to the Lopez enterprises, thumbed down Marcos, saying the people
would not accept Marcos because of his Nalundasan record. "No," said
Benedicto and Teehankee almost in unison, "Marcos killed Nalundasan.
People are convinced about that, even if he had won acquittal from old man
Laurel. We should not have a murderer in Malacanang. It would be like aligning
ourselves with the devil to achieve our objectives of toppling Macapagal."
Benedicto and Teehankee were supported by almost all of those present in the
conference, among them being then Senate President Pro Tempore Fernando
Lopez, economist Alfredo Montelibano, Manila Chronicle editor-in-chief
Ernesto del Rosario, and fellow political writers Ernesto 0. Granada, Benjamin
Penaranda and Francisco de Leon. I argued alone in favor of Marcos.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
One day, I got secret instructions from old man Lopez to work closely with
Marcos. Manila Chronicle General Manager Rafael Salas received the same
instructions. Since I was "covering" Marcos as part of my duties as Senate
reporter of the Manila Chronicle, and having earlier offered him my
endorsement upon the death of Lacson, I carried old man Lopez's instructions
to "cooperate" with Marcos with gusto.
Later on, when then Senate Pro Tempore Fernando Lopez found out
about my working for Marcos, he demanded that I be fired from the Manila
Chronicle. Lopez said: "How this Mijares works for the Chronicle, of which I am
half-owner, and he supports my opponent!" Lopez, the politician, was himself a
candidate for the Nacionalista presidential nomination in direct rivalry with
Marcos. However, on direct instructions from his father, then Chronicle
publisher Eugenio "Geny" Lopez, Jr. stood by me. When his uncle (Fernando)
lost the NP presidential nomination to Marcos on Nov. 17, 1964, Geny shed
tears over the defeat of Don Fernando, and even gave me accusing looks for
what happened.
The ascension of Marcos to the highest position within the gift of the
Filipino people gives us license to take a close look at the character and manner
of life of the man.
"If Imelda Marcos is the richest woman in the world today, it is because
Ferdinand Marcos is the biggest thief in the world today."
This was the most applauded line in the speech of Manglapus, considered
the Philippines' best orator in many languages and former foreign secretary,
during the third annual convention in Los Angeles of the Movement For A Free
Philippines of which he is the president.
Manglapus was referring to the article in the December 1975 issue of
Cosmopolitan magazine listing Imelda Marcos as one of the ten richest women
in the world and "is rumored to be the richest woman in the world bar none."
On May 11, 1975, eight months before the Cosmopolitan expose of the
incredible Marcos wealth, John Marks, co-author of the best selling book "CIA-
Cult of Intelligence," stunned an audience of scholars attending a seminar at
the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago with the revelation that as early as
1969 Marcos had already amassed "stolen funds ranging from not lower than
several hundred million US dollars to two billion US dollars!"
Marks, former assistant in the bureau of intelligence and research under
Ray Cline in the US Department of State, told his audience in Chicago that he
was risking legal sanctions and jail by revealing the psychology profile prepared
by the CIA on Marcos which he saw while he (Marks) was still with the State
Department in 1969.
Marks said the document showed how "incredibly corrupt" Marcos was.
The Marks expose elicited from the audience, according to newspaper reports
from Chicago, "whistling and head-shaking spiced by remarks such as Marcos
could easily make two billion American dollars before martial law with all those
supposed checks and balances, one can imagine how much he and Imelda are
able to milk from a Philippines now under their total control."
In my own memorandum dated August 26, 1975 to the Fraser
Congressional Committee on International Organizations, I reported:
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The greed of Mr. Marcos is such that he even pocketed the 300 million yen
(one million dollars) that the Japanese government sent as gift to the
Philippines in reparation for the killing of Filipino civilians by Lt. Hiroo Onoda,
the World War II Japanese straggler who gave up after hiding in the jungles of
the Philippines for thirty years.
From all indications, Marcos may indeed be the biggest thief in the world
but this well deserved title is nothing compared to the hoaxes and frauds he
has perpetrated and continues to perpetrate on the world. However, he does
not enjoy a perfect score in his game of fooling a trusting humanity.
In the archives of official records in Washington, D.C. are the papers of the
multi-million dollar fake war damage claim filed by Marcos demanding payment
for cattle he claimed he supplied starving American and Filipino troops during
World War II in the Philippines. This claim of Marcos for war reparations was
rejected as "fake" by the US government.
Marcos and his wife, Imelda, had also tried to pull a fast one on the
newspapermen from all over the world then covering Pope Paul's visit to the
Philippines by concocting the story that it was Marcos, using a "karate chop,'"
who saved the Pontiffs life from the knife of a Bolivian would-be assassin. Not
only did the Pope fail to acknowledge Marcos' supposed role in saving the
Papal life but pictures of the incident showed that Marcos was hundreds of feet
from the Bolivian knife wielder and it was, in fact, a Korean bishop who stopped
the would-be killer.
But the biggest fairytale from Marcos that the world seemed to have
swallowed hook, line and sinker is his claim to be the "most decorated Filipino
soldier of World War II who single-handedly delayed the surrender of Bataan
by three months and saved Australia and New Zealand from Japanese
conquest." Marcos had made so many specious claims on his war exploits. He
has bloated apparent minor war exploits into a great saga.
Unfortunately for Marcos, it is not his critics who have supplied the proof
that he is a fake war hero. Probably from over-confidence or plain stupidity,
Marcos' own Department of Public Information in September 1972 published
and distributed to libraries all over the world the official pictorial biography of
Marcos showing that the dictator, in fact, received his medals "for wartime
exploits" in 1962, fully 21 years after the war.
In other words, Marcos received his awards (which made him the so-called
most decorated Filipino soldier in World War II) when he was already a member
of the Philippine Congress. The late Macario Peralta, an authentic war hero
who was then serving as Secretary of National Defense, told newsmen that
Marcos had asked President Macapagal for the decorations because,
according to Peralta, Marcos needed the awards as props for his reelection
campaign to the Senate.
For the supporting papers for the awards, Marcos persuaded a Filipino
officer who fought with extraordinary heroism and bravery in Bataan, now an
official of a Filipino veterans organization, to apply the affidavits containing
some authentic details added the concoctions about Marcos. A notorious forger
from the National Penitentiary was utilized to sign the signatures of deceased
American and Filipino army officers who were supposed to have testified to
Marcos" "war-time exploits" before they died.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Epigenio Dorotheo a police officer in Canada and brother to a new member
of Marcos' Cabinet, revealed to delegates attending the third annual convention
of the Movement For A Free Philippines in Los Angeles the names of the people
whom Marcos used in perpetrating his most decorated Filipino soldier of World
War II hoax. To protect the persons involved by Marcos in the fraud from
reprisals in Manila, I am withholding their identities in this book. If they survive
and outlive the Marcos dictatorship, the world can get its confirmation of this
incredible falsification of war records.
Meanwhile, at great cost to his already impoverished country Marcos has
caused to be struck for worldwide sale gold coins honoring himself. In whole
page advertisements in the leading newspapers and magazines in the world,
Marcos said this of himself:
"A Tribute to a Hero, The 1000 Piso Gold Coin is the first coin to honor
Ferdinand E. Marcos, who this year celebrates his tenth anniversary as
President of the Republic of the Philippines. President Marcos became a living
legend as a World War II guerrilla leader and then, as lawyer, statesman,
congressman, and senator and President, devoted himself to the development
of the Philippines as an independent, strong and stable nation.
"The Philippines’ most decorated war hero, President Marcos won nearly
every medal and decoration the Philippine and American governments could
bestow on a soldier, including the US Distinguished Service Cross which was
personally pinned on the Filipino hero by General Douglas MacArthur."
In its September 1 3-1 9, 1 975 issue, the Philippine News exposed this hoax
of Marcos in an editorial entitled "The 30 pieces of silver of Ferdinand Marcos".
There is no report, paper, article or book on World War II about or by any
of the generals who fought that war in the Pacific. MacArthur. Wainwright,
Willougby, Whitney, Fertig or even Carlos (I saw the Fall of the Philippines)
Romulo, now the propaganda man of Marcos, which either supports the claims
of Marcos nor mentions him at all, directly or indirectly, in spite of Marcos'
claims to have delayed the surrender of Bataan by three months and to have
single-handedly saved Australia and New Zealand or that had he. Marcos, been
born white instead of brown, would be counted as one of America's greatest
heroes (see dedication of the Marcos official biography, For Every Tear A
Victory).
Wainwright, after whose death the Marcos biography said recommended
Marcos for the Congressional Medal of Honor (see page 139 of Marcos of the
Philippines), included almost everybody who played a role in Bataan in his
(Wainright's) war memoirs. Marcos is nowhere in the book.
Significantly, two Marcos-sponsored biographies, Marcos of the
Philippines, and Rendezvous with Destiny, carry contradictory statements on
the oft-reported claim of Marcos that General Douglas MacArthur personally
pinned on Marcos the US Distinguished Service Cross. On page 174 of
Rendezvous with Destiny. Marcos is said to have reminisced with MacArthur
"that extraordinary movement when MacArthur insisted on presenting the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Distinguished Service Cross to Lt. Marcos in a foxhole for exceptional gallantry
in action."
Marcos of the Philippines has it on page 123 that "General Douglas
MacArthur, pinning on Ferdinand Marcos the Distinguished Service Cross for
valor in battle far beyond the call of duty, commented publicly that without
Ferdinand's exploits, Bataan would have fallen three months sooner than it did."
The question is how could MacArthur attribute an accomplished feat to Marcos
when the great American general was supposed to have been saying this in a
foxhole with the battle of Bataan still going on?
What Marcos himself confirms is that during the Japanese occupation, he
was under the care and protection of Jose Laurel, the Japanese puppet
government president who of course was the supreme court justice who fought
for the acquittal of Marcos on a murder conviction on rather astonishing
reasons, including the eyebrow-raising technicality that there were no more
witnesses that Marcos should not go to jail because of his intelligence.
The Marcos book details how Marcos spent months in a Japanese
controlled hospital in Manila recovering from malaria under the care and full
knowledge of the Japanese puppet government.
Equally eye-opening are the accounts that Marcos openly used a
Japanese staff car, accompanied by two colonels of the Japanese-sponsored
Filipino army and himself (Marcos) in the full uniform of a Japanese Philippine
Constabulary officer, travelling all over Luzon unmolested and unchallenged by
the Japanese military. It is perhaps pertinent to mention that the Marcos book
describes how fluent in speaking Japanese the brother of Marcos, Pacifico, had
become.
All this mystery raises the question: what is there in Marcos' record during
the war which makes him invent outrageous fairy tales to prove to all the world
that he is really the patriotic and courageous man he claims to be?
Marcos himself admits that he escaped liquidation many times by the
guerrillas who believed that he was a Japanese spy, a reputation rather strange
for one supposedly known throughout the Philippines as the super hero of
Bataan. In the February 28, 1 976. issue of the Philippine Daily Express, Marcos
told columnist Teodoro F. Valencia that resistance fighters "did not believe he
was a guerrilla, and instead suspected him to be an infiltrator for the Japanese."
The fact is that nobody heard of Marcos as a war hero until the appearance
of his biography. For Every Tear A Victory , and significantly at a time when
Generals MacArthur and Jonathan Wainwright, the real heroes of the Pacific
War to whom Marcos attributed all the statements confirming his so-called
exploits in Bataan, were already long dead and in no position to confirm or deny
Marcos' wild claims of heroism and courage.
Immediately after World War II, when Filipinos talked about their heroes,
the names mentioned were Villamor, Basa, Kangleon, Lim, Adevoso and Balao
of the Bessang Pass fame. Marcos was totally unknown.
In chapter seven of his biography, Marcos’ evaluation of his role in the
Pacific war was that he fought it ail himself. “Military historians,” the Marcos
book declares “concede that the heroic stand at Bataan upset the Japanese
timetable of conquest, gave the allies time to defend the South Pacific, and
thus saved Australia and New Zealand. In a very real sense, therefore, the
refusal of Ferdinand Marcos to admit he was beaten made a contribution to the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
war that was of enormous consequence to the world.”
The claim of the Marcos book “that without Ferdinand’s exploits, Bataan
would have fallen three months sooner than it did” not only insults the
intelligence but is of itself ridiculous. The entire battle of Bataan took exactly
three months, from January 9, 1942 to April 9, 1942. The proud MacArthur
could not have made a statement crediting Marcos with having single-handedly
fought the Battle of Bataan. As a matter of fact, there is no mention of Marcos
by MacArthur in any writing, article, paper, or book which would be anomalous
if indeed Marcos is to be taken at his word.
The Marcos book claims that “Wainwright also directed that papers be
prepared recommending Marcos for the Congressional Medal of Honor. This
was done. Had papers not been lost in the last days of Bataan, Marcos would
have been the only Filipino army officer to win the United States’ highest valor
award in the Bataan campaign.”
Curiously and with great insult to intelligence again, the Marcos book which
claims that the papers citing him for the Medal of Honor were "lost in the last
days of Bataan." The "lost papers" are cited word for word on page 138 and
139:
"In disregard of his personal safety," the Congressional Medal citation
reads, "notwithstanding the fact he had just been captured by the enemy and
tortured, realizing the defense of the Salian junction was crucial to the entire
USAFFE (U.S. Armed Forces in the Far East), and it was unprotected since all
units were withdrawing southward without waiting for orders, he gathered
elements of the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infanty, 21st Division headquarters
personnel, and stragglers from the 51st Division, with which he fought his way
to the junction of the Salian River and the Abo-Abo River to set up a defense
block against the Japanese elements of the 9th Infantry under Colonel Susumu
Takechi, which was then beginning to feel its way eastward to the Salian River.
After inflicting and also suffering, severe casualties, he and his men fought their
way back to the USAFFE lines at Pilar-Bagac on 26 January, 1942 (six days
later)
"By his initiative, his example of extraordinary valor and heroism, courage
and daring in fighting at the junction of the Salian River and the Abo-Abo River,
he encouraged the demoralized men under him. inflicting heavy casualties on
the enemy and successfully blocking the Japanese 9th Infantry... under orders
to move southeast ... and turn the flank of the entire 2nd Corps under General
Parker. With this heroism beyond the call of duty and utter disregard for
personal safety and extraordinary heroism, he prevented the possible rout of
the USAFFE troops then withdrawing to the USAFFE Bataan second line of
defense.
"Had he not done so, the citation states, "the 2nd Corps would have been
routed and Bataan might have fallen sooner".
Notice how the words "Bataan might have fallen sooner", which are
supposed to be MacArthur's words, keep appearing in other people's mouths.
Curiously again, Marcos is credited with, the outcome of the battle of Bataan
even while that particular battle was still being fought. Here was Marcos
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
claiming to be cited for the Medal of Honor in the early days of the war for
supposedly delaying a surrender that was yet several months away.
Of course. Marcos was to repeat this familiar fakery when he imposes
martial law in the Philippines on September 22, 1972. When, Marcos appeared
on the television channel that was allowed to go on the air that black Saturday
evening, the first Filipino dictator said he imposed martial law because of the
ambush of his defense secretary in the early evening of September 22. Weeks
later by a faux pas, Marcos admitted that he signed his declaration of martial
law on September 21. In other words, here was Marcos declaring martial law
giving as his reason an event (the supposed Enrile ambuscade) that had not
yet happened.
Even if it were true that the Medal of Honor papers were lost in the last
days of Bataan, Wainwright, who was supposed to have had the citation
prepared, survived the war and lived long after that. He could have confirmed
Marcos' supposed world-shaking contribution in the war. Marcos, by his own
admission was such an expert on the gathering and preparation of affidavits,
could have had his greatest claim verified by going to Wainwright as he indeed
went to great lengths and trouble in obtaining sworn statements even for
obscure Philippine war decorations.
The fact is that Wainwright, like MacArthur and all the generals who fought
in that war, has not said or written one word about Ferdinand Marcos. This
oversight did not prevent the Marcos book from carrying a dedication
addressed to Marcos himself “who, had he been bom white-skinned on the
American mainland rather than brown-skinned in the U.S. Philippines, would
todav be counted one of America’s greatest heroes.”
A surviving orderly of MacArthur still becomes livid with anger when he
hears about the "falsified claim" that Wainwright had recommended Marcos for
the Congressional Medal of Honor. "That's a lot of bull. I would have known
about it, if the good General had recommended Marcos to receive the medal."
divulged by retired US Army Major Edward Ferrrandez. Fernandez started
serving MacArthur as an orderly long before the war and continued to do so
until 1945. retiring with the rank of major, years after the liberation of the
Philippines. Major Fernandez now lives in San Francisco.
The greatest hoax of the Philippines has now been internationalized, with
the minting of gold coins for worldwide circulation.
After reading the advertisement blurb that "Marcos won nearly every medal
and decoration the Philippine and American governments could bestow on a
soldier," an FBI agent was surprised to know that 26 of Marcos' supposed
decorations are Philippine medals he obtained twenty years after the war.
"Until Marcos made this claim, I thought Audie Murphy was the most
decorated soldier of World War II," the FBI agent said.
But Bataan is not the only fraudulent claim that Marcos has made. In the
September 12, 1973 issue of Asia Magazine, then printed in Hongkong and
distributed with the leading English dailies in Asia, Marcos not only claimed he
fought in Bessang Pass but that Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaya and the highest
ranking Japanese general in the Philippines, actually surrendered to him:
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
"... in the bloody battle of Bessang Pass, he (Marcos) received the
surrender of General Yamashita. Commander of the Japanese forces in the
Philippines." Yamashita surrendered on Sept. 3. 1945.
In a front page article in its November 28-Decembcr 4, 1974 issue, the
Philippine Mews reported:
Marcos himself up to now. has never replied to the charges aired by former
Senator Osmena, Jr. in Congress that Marcos also collected a medal by
claiming to be the hero of the Battle of Bessang Pass when witnesses and
records indicated that Marcos was nowhere near Bessang Pass at the time the
battle was being fought.
Reporting on the 36-page privileged speech of Osmena Jr. in congress that
week, the Philippine Free Press (now suppressed by Marcos) in its issue of
April 20, 1965 quoted Osmena, Jr.:
He (Marcos) claims he was at Bessang Pass fighting the Japanese for
which he was awarded a medal as the hero of Bessang Pass. Those who
actually fought at Bessang Pass say that they had never seen Mr. Marcos there
or his whereabouts. One of these is a political reporter of the "Evening News"
who, in his column published last year, made the startling revelation that Mr.
Marcos never took part in the critical battle which broke the back of the
Japanese forces in the North.
There are those who attest to the fact that Mr. Marcos was during all that
time at Luna, La Union, attending to military cases as a judge advocate. This
notwithstanding, he got a medal and even caused a distortion in history by
having himself proclaimed as the Hero of Bessang Pass.
Express week, a magazine which appeared after martial law and which is
owned by Marcos, carried an article in its October 25, 1973 issue about Capt.
Arthur W. Wermuth, the famed Bataan veteran officially credited with killing 1 1 6
Japanese soldiers and capturing hundreds of prisoners. Wermuth was visiting
Manila then and had a reunion with his Filipino Bataan buddies. Wermuth's
comrades in arms told Expressweek that Wermuth probably killed 300
Japanese soldiers, more than what he had been officially credited with.
The Wermuth visit that Marcos had wanted to make propaganda of,
boomeranged when Filipinos suddenly realized that here was Wennuth, whom
even the Expressweek agreed deserved his title of "The One Man Army of
Bataan" losing war honors to Marcos who instead is credited with "winning
every medal and decoration the US government could bestow."
The Marcos book tells of the supposed invincibility of Marcos in battle.
According to the book the story of war exploits of Marcos "spread throughout
Bataan. Indeed, the legend spread all over the Pacific."
What is mystifying about this is that Carlos Romulo who was senior aide-
de-camp and press relations officer of Gen. MacArthur and reportedly the last
man out of Bataan, apparently never heard of nor was told of the supposed
heroics of Marcos which supposedly were legend and known throughout
Bataan. This was most surprising because Romulo won a Pulitzer Prize for
some of his writings of that war and had written a book, / Saw the Fall of the
Philippines, which was a best seller in the United States during World War II.
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Romulo, now the chief propagandist of Marcos abroad, wrote about almost
everybody who had some contribution in Bataan but the Romulo book mentions
not one word about Marcos who supposedly delayed the surrender of Bataan,
saved Australia and New Zealand, and should be counted as one of America's
greatest heroes.
Indeed, how could have Romulo missed the exploits of Marcos which were
supposed to be on everybody's lips in Bataan? Colonel N.L. Manzano of the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whose war exploits were documented by
Generals Wainwright, Willougby and even by Romulo himself, says that they
were in need of stories to bolster the morale of the Filipino and American troops
in Bataan that they would have used the Marcos exploits to inspire the soldiers
if those stories were true.
The Marcos war tales of his heroism and courage are straight out of Walter
Mitty. Here are samples from the official Marcos biography:
On page 129:
"Ferdinand faced a Japanese Officer's saber when suddenly he heard a
voice in llocano: 'Attorney, your back!' He ducked and whirled, missing a
bayonet as he did so, and dispatched both attackers with his pistol." .
On page 135:
The enemy was so busy firing that the surprise was complete. Hugging up
under concealment of the cogon, the patrol was within twenty-five yards of the
battery before Ferdinand knocked off its commander with a rifle shot. Confusion
made pandemonium of the ridge. It boiled with soldiers. In the chaos the patrol
did its work. Fire two rounds, then roll. Fire and roll. Grenades finished the job.
Now from the trail emerged two officers with machine guns, and Ferdinand
destroyed them. Salvaging one of the weapons, he turned it on the ammunition-
carriers. That cleared the top of the mountain in a hurry. More than fifty men,
eight of them officers, lay dead.
On page 137:
“Don’t resist,” Ferdinand commanded in Tagalog.
Disarmed, they were taken to a command post in the jungle. Beaten with
gun butts, they “confessed” that a gap existed in their lines at Barrio Guitol, at
precisely the point where Capinpin’s 21st Infantry was strongest. Finally
exhausted from the torture, they were tied and left on the ground with a guard
of two soldiers. In the night, Ferdinand charged free of his bonds, slit the
throats of the guards, released his companion, and led them safely back to their
own camp.
On page 149:
Ferdinand watched again for an opportunity to escape.
On the fourth day he found it. Tall cogon grass encroached to the edge of
the road. Across a wide expanse of it eastward beckoned the cool, blue
mountains. He dived into the weeds. But the Japanese had seen him. Making
no effort at pursuit, the guards halted the column and lined up nine men before
a firing squad.
Ferdinand, who had not gone far, returned. The Japanese laughed, beat
him in the face with a rifle butt, and the march continued.
There are many stories of men who have escaped from the Bataan Death
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
March along the way. The escapists were concerned in putting as much
distance between themselves and the enemy that it is ridiculous that anyone
thus fleeing would linger behind and watch what the enemy would do.
Based on the Marcos story of his attempted escape, it was obvious that the
Japanese knew that Marcos was watching them because they did not shoot
him but instead took time to line up nine men and organize a firing squad
apparently all for Marcos’ benefit. The truth is the Japanese had no time or pa-
tience in playing games that they just shot anybody who faltered in the march
or attempted escape.
But the tallest of the tall tales of Marcos is the one on his supposed talisman,
charm or anting-anting as locally known. The Marcos book makes the most of
this fairytale obviously because of the effect it might have on the less literate
and more superstitious Filipinos. Marcos sought to accomplish this by declaring
as reported in the New York Times issue of November 29, 1972, that he
imposed martial law after "consulting God and receiving signs from Him to act."
The Marcos book attributes powers to Marcos bordering on the
supernatural. On page seven it says:
"The Marcos charm is a famous one. It is a silver of petrified medicinal
wood, so the story goes, bequeathed to Marcos by a legendary figure of the
previous generation, Gregorio Aglipay. Its origins are Tagalog. Among its
virtues, it permits its holder to disappear and reappear at will. It has other
supernatural attributes, one of them being that under some circumstances the
use of it can restore the dead to life.
“Aglipay was a Catholic priest who joined the revolution of 1892 against
Spain, resisted the American occupation, and afterward founded a
revolutionary, independent church. Ferdinand’s maternal grandfather,
Fructuoso Edralin, had followed Aglipay during the revolution’s final guerrilla
phase, and Ferdinand’s father had been supported by the Aglipay faction in the
national congress for two terms under the American occupation. Ferdinand’s
aunt Antonia, a noted poet in the llocano tnbal vernacular had given Aglipay
the land for his most imposing church. As a reward for all these loyalties, the
legend says, Aglipay, before he died, gave his magic talisman to Marcos to
protect him dunng the Battle of Bataan, making an incision in Ferdinand’s back
with his own hand to insert the amulet.
“At Bataan, men knew that to go on patrol with Lieutenant Ferdinand
Marcos, an intelligence officer who ranged well behind the enemy lines, was an
infallible way to win the Purple Heart, if not a gold star. They admitted that
Ferdinand, as patrol leader, was the first man to face danger in any fracas and
the last to hold a rear guard, yet he always escaped unscathed. For three
months the Battle of Bataan enveloped the peninsula. In all that time
Marcos was on almost constant patrol, or engaging in formidable exploits which
will be described later. What interests us here is that his comrades said he
could not have survived without the anting anting of Aglipay.”
Obviously the potency of the Marcos anting-anting expired at the advent of
martial law. Now Marcos dares not venture from his heavily fortified palace at
Malacanang without his massive corps of bodyguards recently enlarged to a
full army division which is the best equipped in the land. To further insure the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
security of Marcos, the houses and buildings around the presidential palace
have been permanently emptied of their occupants.
Marcos never travels far from his Palace without a "hospital on wheels"
immediately following the presidential car. This mobile hospital is completely
equipped, blood plasma and all, for an emergency operation with 24-hour duty
doctors and nurses ready to save the life of Marcos in an emergency, natural
or man-made.
So blatant are the hoaxes pulled by Marcos in his obsession at self
mythification that a newspaper columnist in the United States referred to the
Filipino dictator as Fraud-inand E. Marcos and Fake-dinand E. Marcos. In
copying the techniques of Adolf Hitler in fooling the world, Marcos did not
overlook the success of the Nazi leader's minister of propaganda minister, Dr.
Joseph Goebbels, at image building. Handicapped by a left leg which was
shorter than his right because of an unsuccessful operation, Goebbels
explained his limp by passing himself off as a wounded war veteran.
The Education of Ferdinand Marcos
Bribery, treachery, violence and murder dominate the genealogy of the
Marcos and Edralin families and served as the molds which formed the
mentality and character of Ferdinand Marcos as subsequent events proved.
An uncle, Mariano Edralin, was stabbed in the back and died while
attempting to reposses a church in 1910 before Ferdinand was born.
Ferdinand's own father, Mariano, was executed by the guerrillas for being a
Japanese spy. Ferdinand, of course, was a convicted murderer before he was
eighteen.
Marcos himself tries to explain this streak of blood and death in his ancestry
by claiming in his official biography, Marcos of the Philippines (page 19), that
his forbear was probably "a fifteenth-century pirate who had overrun much of
the coast along the China Sea."
Marcos never tires of relating how he and his brother, Pacifico, were reared
at an early age in the use of firearms starting from their maternal grandfather
to their father.
In an attempt to attribute his ruthlessness in dealing with rivals to training
he had received as a child, Marcos points out on page 26 of his book:
"The father's emphasis was not on sportsmanship, it was on the victory.
He was a bad loser."
Marcos went on to point out that his father took "defeat badly" on losing the
election for assemblyman of his province to Julio Nalundasan; that his father
"for almost a year was so emotionally upset that he could not practice law."
Marcos remembers with obvious pride how as a young boy he watched his
father gun down a Muslim fanatic called juramentado.
The Marcos biography also reveals that gratitude is not one of the virtues
of Ferdinand. Marcos had placed the blame, rather bitterly, on Manuel Quezon,
the president of the Philippine Commonwealth, for the electoral defeat of
Mariano by Nalundasan.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Marcos admits that "in the extremity" of his father's election defeat,
President Quezon appointed Mariano governor of Davao, the choicest province
in Mindanao. It was in Davao that the Marcos family was able to acquire an
hacienda "in the vast Padada Valley" which Ferdinand was to use after World
War II as his basis for his unsuccessful attempt to collect $8 million from the
United ranch Marcos swore he supplied starving American and Filipino troops.
It was also "after two summers on Davao," Marcos claimed that at the age
of sixteen he "won the small-bore rifle and pistol championship of the
Philippines." This was a barefaced lie that Marcos was to repeat successfully
to American Sports-writer Mark Kram who was in Manila covering the Ali-
Frazier fight for Sports Illustrated.
In a special interview with Kram, which appeared in the States in fraudulent
war claims in reparations for cattle from his September 29, 1 975 issue of Sports
Illustrated, Marcos lied:
"Well, I was the national champion in shooting. I won the championship
when I was 1 6 and kept it for many years. My shooting got me in trouble. I was
charged with murder, but was acquitted."
The Philippine News exposed the hoax of Marcos in its October 11-17,
1975 issue:
"Senator Ambrosio Padilla then president of. the Philippine Amateur
Athletic Federation, exposed this fraudulent claim of Marcos by proving that it
was actually Teddy Kalaw who won the shooting championship with the name
of Marcos nowhere in the records in any year, a revelation that Marcos never
contested."
Furthermore, Marcos was born on September 11, 1917. If Marcos had
indeed won the shooting championship at 16 this would place his so called
garnering the title in 1933. Marcos could not have "kept it for many years"
because he spent most of his time in court and jail for several years after 1 935.
Anyway, the generosity of President Quezon to the Marcos family did not
bother Ferdinand in maligning the memory of the dead, both Quezon and his
daughter, in the Marcos biography. In a narration that could have come only
from Marcos, Marcos' biographer relates an incident whose only meaning is
that Quezon offered and gave away the virtue of his daughter, Baby, to Marcos.
"What you need is someone your own age to show you what a fool you
are," the President said. He sent for his oldest daughter, Maria Aurora, and
introduced her to Ferdinand.
“This young hothead needs someone like you to cool him off," the
President told his daughter. "He is puffed up like an adder in his own conceit
and pride. But he has a great deal to recommend him. I leave his education to
you.
"He left the two of them alone.”
“The Presidential instinct was unerring. Maria Aurora did teach young
Ferdinand a few practical lessons which he needed. He courted her, in his
lighter moments, for nearly ten years."
This ungallant and defamatory concoction of Marcos, including the book's
reference (page 212) to Maria Aurora as "Ferdinand Marcos' enamorata" so
outraged the surviving children of the dead father and daughter and the entire
Philippine nation that Marcos had to delete the offensive and malicious
falsehood from a revised version of his biography.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
What kind of a woman was Ferdinand's mother and what traits did Marcos
inherit from her?
The Marcos biography describes her as "scarcely five feet tall with a
distinct Mongolian cast to her eyes" attributed to "blood" deposited by the pirate
that Marcos claimed was his ancestor.
This infusion of pirate blood was probably the reason why Marcos said his
family and relatives "were shrewder than their neighbors, cannier in business,
and more resourceful."
Expectedly, the Marcos book refers to Ferdinand's mother as "an honors
student and gifted in speech" together with the adjectives "thrifty, hardworking
and ambitious."
But a deeper reading of the Marcos book reveals a side of the character of
Josefa Edralin Marcos which may account for Ferdinand's acknowledged
mastery of bribery either as a giver or taker.
On page 154 of the Marcos book is the incredible claim that the Japanese
military in charge of the prisoners of war camp in Capas where Ferdinand was
supposed to be imprisoned had accepted bribes from Josefa first, to be with
her son all day, and second, to set Ferdinand free:
"One day he was mustered into a telephone-line crew. His mother had
bribed a sergeant to arrange this. All day she remained with her son, and the
sergeant permitted them to talk together.
"Josefa Marcos bribed the authorities to hasten her son's freedom. On
August 4, 1942, Ferdinand was summoned to camp headquarters. A man in
civilian clothes confronted him. "Your family and friends," the man said, "are
anxious for you. They have asked me to inquire whether you wish to be
released."
It is simply unbelievable that the victorious Japanese troops who could get
at will anything and everything they wanted would have the need to be "bribed"
or could have been bribed fanatically loyal as they were to their soldier's code
of Bushido which made them prefer death to dishonor.
How and why was Marcos freed ahead of the rest if this story of his mother
having corrupted the Japanese camp authorities is to be discounted. Who really
bribed whom to do what?
Y.S. Kwong, a Filipino millionaire who recently sold out his businesses in
the Philippines and has now settled in Vancouver, Canada, told an audience
composed of a publisher and newsmen at the San Francisco Press Club that
"contrary to Ferdinand's claims as the most decorated Filipino soldier of World
War II, Marcos, in fact, spent the four years of the Japanese occupation as a
buy and sell agent."
Kwong made the stunning revelation that Josefa Edralin was arrested in a
public high school in Manila (Arellano High School) for having opium and heroin
in her possession. Kwong even mentioned the name of the arresting police
officer as Telesforo Tenorio, then a detective but later to become a chief of
police of Manila.
The suspicion was that Josefa was selling drugs to the students of the
school where she was a teacher and librarian. According to Kwong, Josefa was
able to either bribe or cry her way out of the incident.
According to Kwong, the Marcos family was so poor that it was living from
day to day and from hand to mouth. Ferdinand, Kwong said, sold anything he
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
could lay his hands on — including scrap metal which may have found its way
to Japanese factories and used in the manufacture of bombs and armaments.
It appears that the mother of Marcos was the practical one in the family
and by her wits fed and supported the family through its hard times. The father
on the other hand remained an eccentric recluse alternately given to moods of
depression and dreams of grandeur.
A physician in San Francisco, Dr. Ernesto Hilario, a provincemate and
friend of Ferdinand, said that Mariano Marcos and his family “were different
from you and me.” Asked to elaborate, Dr. Hilario pointed out that Marcos’
father, for example, would often walk around his town dressed up in riding togs,
breeches, horse whip and all, but without a horse.
Rafael Salas, now an Undersecretary General of the United Nations who
served as the first executive secretary of Marcos, summed in an interview for
the Asia Philippines Leader April 1 , 1 971 issue the most accurate and prophetic
evaluation of the type of person that evolved from the turbulent and sinister
factors that influenced the thinking and character of Ferdinand Marcos.
According to Salas “Marcos has a certain style of politics. It’s unique with
him and I think he’s a most successful practitioner of it. He may not know his
individuals but he knows the average Filipino: to what degree this average
Filipino can be scared, what are the limits before he becomes violent. Within
these limits, he will apply any sort of artifice. I think thus far he has succeeded.
“Now this style he evolved from two experiences: his experience with
domestic politics in the llocos, where there are only two methods; violence and
money; and his experience in Congress, where there are really no rules. In
short, any type of dissimulation or chicanery or bribery or coercion is applicable.
This he brought to the Executive Office.”
ORIGIN OF THE MARCOS WEALTH
The December issue of the glamour magazine Cosmopolitan is making the
rounds of Filipino circles here.
The issue has struck the fancy of its dazzling article on “The Ten Richest
Women in the World” in which Mrs. Imelda Marcos — hail! — was voted as one
of the walking gold mines.
The inclusion of Imelda in the fabulous list was indeed judicious considering
that the yardstick used, apparently, was ostentatious wealth.
Writer Richard Baker, however, appeared to have deliberately spun a veil
of mystery as to how the fabulous Imelda and her consort came to their fortune
which Cosmopolitan gingerly estimated at “multimillions,” and with a question
mark, at that.
All Baker did was to hint at it by using the apt verb “amassed.” If he probed
any further, then, he might have decided to place Imelda in another list — that
one for “the world’s top women of ill-gotten wealth.”
Of course, Imelda has a very naive way of denying that they only found
their treasure chest right at the doorsteps of Malacanang Palace.
Imelda is very vocal about the fact that when she met and married Mr.
Marcos after a whirlwind courtship, Ferdie — then a congressman — was
already a millionaire in his own right.
There is a story she apparently loves to recall to friends which she did tell
one time (before martial law) to Malacanang reporters.
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In her child-like, excited way, when she married Ferdie she was brought to
his private bank vault. And there it was before her eyes: piles and piles of cold
cash!
Immediately, she got in touch with her aunt, the wife of the late former
Speaker Daniel R. Romualdez. She described to her aunt how many rows and
how high the rows of bills in various denominations were.
At her aunt’s computation, she recalled, the vault money would have run to
two or three million pesos! And what about Ferdie’s other assets such as huge
tracts of land during that time?
But Imelda, quite prudently, did not go through the length of describing how
then-Congressman Ferdinand E. Marcos arrived at such wealth.
Suggestions that she and her husband accumulated money through
kickbacks make her openly furious.
Why should they go through such degrading method, she would ask, when
there were other ways available through the presidency?
She once told Malacanang reporters — which included myselt and
disenchanted former martial law propagandist Primitivo Mijares — that in their
positions she and her husband could easily borrow money from any bank in the
world or from rich personal friends in the international jet set.
Why, if she’d only run for the presidency, she said, she’d easily have $100
million as pledged by Cristina Ford!
And she tried to drive home her point by saying that through the presidency,
they could legitimately make money since they could have advance information
on government actions and decisions which are useful in business. r
To borrow a phrase from the Cosmopolitan, “the cat is out of the money
bag.”
The foregoing was a dispatch from Toronto published in the Chicago-based
Philippine Times in its December 16-31, 1975 issue. The author was Ruben
Cusipag, a Filipino newspaperman who is now of the Toronto Times. Cusipag
and I were “Malacanang beat reporters.”
The version of Imelda that Marcos showed her his wealth in not so petty
cash in a vault of a Manila bank is contested only with regards to the date of
the event. What is universally accepted in the Philippines is the story that the
Marcos fortune in millions of cold cash was displayed to Imelda before her mar-
riage to Ferdinand. So smitten was Marcos with Imelda that to inveigle her to
accepting a dinner date, he asked two ladies then with Imelda to come along.
On the way to the restaurant, Marcos made some excuse to stop by his
bank and invited the three ladies to step inside the vault. As later recounted by
one of the witnesses, Imelda’seyes nearly popped out beholding all that cash,
not in pesos but in good old American dollars. Forthwith the courtship of Imelda
by Marcos became not only smooth sailing but whirlwind. It is perfectly
understandable, of course, that Madame Marcos would now want to dispel any
notion that she married Ferdinand for reasons other than love.
The two ladies who “chaperoned" Imelda are still alive. One of them is an
ex-newspaperwoman.
Where did Marcos get all that cash since he was neither an industrialist,
businessman or financial wizard with stocks and bonds but was supposed to
be an underpaid Filipino congressman? The Marcos family was so poor that by
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Ferdinand’s own account he nearly did not graduate from college because he
could not take his final examinations for lack of tuition money. The Marcos
biography relates that it was to get this tuition money from his grandparents that
explained Ferdinand’s hurried trip to his hometown coincidentally at the time of
the Nalundasan murder.
The Marcos biography supplies us with the bases for the premise that a
less than honest and evil genius could easily amass a fortune by making use
of the situation over which he had total control. The Marcos biography, on
pages 1 98-1 99 tells us, in fact, the role Marcos played in collecting war backpay
based on “documents” on which later, the Marcos biography had to admit, “the
United States government placed an embargo.”
A portion of the Marcos biography stated:
“While all this occurred, Marcos was also busy as adjutant general of the
USAFIP-NL, which in its last months of the Bessang Pass campaign numbered
about twenty thousand men. Most of them had no proof of their military records.
All the official archives had been lost during the war. Many of the guerrillas had
promoted themselves. With peace, all these warriors would be mustered out.
None of them had a penny with which to resume civilian life and most of their
homes had been destroyed. The reactivation of the Commonwealth had placed
them on the U.S. Army payroll, and General MacArthur had promised publicly
that any rewards given by a grateful nation to the warriors of World War II,
treatment of their injuries, and relief for their families, would include the Filipinos
who were on active duty prior to December 8, 1 941 , had not deserted (as many
had done), and who had not collaborated. All of the eligibles were presumed to
have been on active duty throughout the war. Thus they might collect with proof
of service, four years of backpay and living allowances, plus any benefits which
the Congress might bestow later.
“Starting with his own Maharlika, then embracing the entire force of
northern Luzon, Marcos as adjutant general legitimatized the roster of this
army. His procedure was to obtain massive affidavits, with supporting proofs,
where possible from eyewitnesses in authority, for every man’s war record.
Where wounds were suffered, medals won, promotions given, sworn
statements were gathered from those who had prepared the orders or seen
them written. The graves of the dead were located witnesses testified to
the ultimate heroism of thousands of missing men, thus extending their back
pay and insurance to their widows and children. Guerrilla commanders attested
to the loyalty of their followers. As a result of this enormous work, the U.S.
Adjutant General recognized about 3500 claims from individual soldiers
formerly in Ferdinand’s command.
“Marcos then encouraged other military units to conduct similar studies
along the identical affidavit pattern. He wrote the constitutions for more than
thirty veterans’ organizations, and finally for the united group, the Philippine
Veterans Legion.
“Thousands of warriors and their families acknowledge debt to Marcos for
initiating and validating their claims before the U.S. government placed an
embargo on such documents. For this work alone, Marcos is undoubtedly the
most popular man in the Philippines among veterans.”
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
It is clear from the foregoing that Marcos not only began and perfected the
practice of collecting war reparations on “massive affidavits” but controlled the
filling and collection of the greatest number of claims in the entire country. It is
easy to see how useful the experience and expertise that Marcos obtained from
this business of benefiting from the war became to him. When he decided,
twenty years after the war, to claim and collect the medals which were to make
him, in his words, “the most decorated Filipino soldier of World War II,” mastery
of the production of affidavits and documents came in handy.
The success of Marcos with the claims filed in the names of others must
have enboldened him to try one big one for himself. Claiming that he supplied
starving American and Filipino soldiers with several thousand heads of cattle,
Marcos decided to file that fake multi-million dollar war reparations claim in
Washington, D.C.
Marcos has never denied this smelly deal. Apparently this attempt of his to
palm off on Uncle Sam a totally fake claim did not deter Marcos from later
promoting and picturing himself as a patriot and hero willing to offer his life
unselfishly and nobly for no other reason but to serve his country and
fellowmen.
One man who actually risked his life, fought in the underground, and at
times, (see “Under the Red Sun” by Father Monaghan) had face-to-face
confrontations with the Japanese was Arsenio H. Lacson. Lacson was the most
colorful and effective mayor of Manila, the toast of great newspapers including
the New York Times, who would have become President of the Philippines and
made ascendancy of Marcos impossible had he not died prematurely from a
heart attack. Lacson told me when I was covering him at the Manila City Hall
that Marcos made further money smuggling arms to the Sukarno forces then
fighting their Dutch masters in Indonesia.
According to Y.S. Kwong, Lacson has figured in the lives of both Ferdinand
and Imelda Marcos. Kwong recalled how Lacson had beaten Marcos black and
blue in fisticuffs when both were young assistants in the well-known Francisco
Law Office in Manila.
But it was definitely the import-control law which Marcos authored, pushed
in congress and conned his fellow llocano, President Elpidio Quirino, into
signing into law that must have skyrocketed the Marcos accumulation of cash
into the millions that popped the eyeballs of Imelda out of their sockets that
memorable day at the vault.
As in the backpay racket, Marcos was the lord tong collector of every
sizeable import license approved by the Central Bank. He had full time staffs
both at his office in Congress and at his residence at San Juan, Rizal to
process, follow up and receive “cumshaw” from grateful businessmen.
According to Heherson Alvarez, delegate from Isabela province who is now in
exile in America, the minimum fee demanded by Marcos for every
import license release was PI 0,000.
So pernicious, pervasive and total the hold and control of Marcos of the
peddling of import licenses that on one occasion he himself went to obtain at
the point of a gun the approval of papers the release of which were being held
up by an official of the Central Bank. So terrified was the bank official that when
Marcos burst into his office, pointed a gun at his (the official) forehead that the
poor man lost no time in resigning from the bank and emigrating with his family
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
to the United States.
In January, 1970, when there was widespread indignation over Marcos'
having suddenly become the "richest man in Asia," Marcos called in the
Malacanang reporters for a news briefing at the ninth hole of the Malacanang
golf course. He complained that he was being unduly pilloried by the mass
media and the opposition party for his alleged ill-gotten wealth.
"I will admit that I am rich. But, you know boys, how I made my pile? I
discovered the treasure of Yamashita," Marcos declared.
It was widely reputed in the Philippines that Yamashita, the last commander
of the Japanese Imperial forces in the Philippines, buried a lot of treasures
which he had looted from Burma, Malaya and Singapore before he surrendered
to American forces.
If it is true, then Marcos has committed and continues to commit a violation
of law. He has not shared half of the hidden treasure he had discovered with
the Philippine government as provided by law.
Chapter X
The loves of Marcos
"Sabihin mo sa sir mo, at nasabi ko na rin sa kaniya ito. Kapag hindi siya
tumigil rig pagioioko, gag aw an ko siya ng eskandalo na maluluma si Profumo.
"(Tell your sir (i.e. President Marcos], and I have myself told him about this. If
he does not stop his philandering, I will expose a scandal about him that would
dwarf the Profumo case.)
British Defense Minister John Profumo was forced to resign from the
Cabinet of Prime Minister Harold MacMillan when he was denounced for having
allegedly consorted with a prostitute, Christine Keeler. This brought down the
government of MacMillan.*i
(* 1 . British Defense Minister John Profumo was forced to resign from the Cabinet of Prime Minister
Harold MacMillan when he was denounced for having consorted with a prostitute, Christine Keeler.
This brought down the government of MacMillan.)
The party giving the warning was none other than the First Lady, Mrs.
Imelda Ftomualdez-Marcos, who was so distraught one day that she found
Teodoro F. Valencia, pro-Marcos newspaperman willing to listen to her
sympathetically.
At the time, Mrs. Marcos felt like a woman scorned. She had good reasons
to be. She had discovered not by herself, but by the admission of the "other
woman," that her husband had acquired a mistress who, according to the
woman, was promised by the President the prospect of being a future First Lady
in lieu of Imelda Romualdez who was becoming fat and obese, and an old wag.
The other woman turned out to be Dovie Beams, an upcoming star from
Hollywood. Of course, there were other Marcos affairs, but this was the one
that made the headlines; the only instance wherein the woman herself admitted
to being a mistress of the President of the Philippines.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Before Dovie Beams and even before Imelda, the loves of Marcos were
quite known. There was Carmen Ortega, by whom the President has begotten
four children, two of them before he became senator of the Philippines. It was
Carmen whom the President's mother wanted to have as a daughter-in-law.
But Imelda proved faster than Carmen in getting Ferdinand to marry her on May
1, 1955, before Judge Francisco Ma. Chanco in La Trinidad Valley, Benguet,
in the Mountain Province.
Up till now, the Old Lady Dona Josefa, still voices regrets that her son did
not marry Carmen, a beauteous llocano mestiza.
Anyway Carmen has been amply provided for, along with her brood of four
small Marcoses. As a matter of fact, the welfare of Carmen and her children
was the reason President Marcos could not dismiss his forestry director,
Antonio Quejado, despite the presentation by then Vice President Fernando
Lopez, then concurrently secretary of agriculture and natural resources, of
overwhelming evidence of graft and corruption involving Quejado. Quejado was
assigned by the President and Dona Josefa to "take care" of Carmen and her
brood. In the coordinated efforts to take care of Carmen, there were occasions
when Dona Josefa has had to call on former Congressman Roquito S. Ablan.
Jr., a protege of President Marcos, to shelter Carmen and her children from the
prying eyes of Imelda Marcos and her agents. For Mrs. Imelda Marcos had
demanded that Carmen and her brood be "thrown away, some way far from my
sight" or from her circle of friends. The woman's presence in Manila was a
dagger pointed at her back, Imelda would say.
Like any lothario, the President would like to lay every available beautiful
woman. The big difference is that he has the vast resources of the presidency,
restrained only by the somewhat weakened opposition of an Imelda Marcos
rendered in estoppel by her own relationship with the President on matters of
hymeneal concern. International beauty contestants, young movie actresses
and prominent young society matrons make up the sexual-therapeutic coterie
available only to President Marcos in the Philippines.
No prize or price is too high to pay by the President or by his procurers in
the matter of satisfying the presidential genitals. It could be a fat government
contract, an unsecured multimillion peso loan or anything of valuable
consideration; the presidential egomaniacal desire to prove that he still is a
sexually virile man has had to be served.
There were times when military briefings or conferences outside the Palace
have had to be faked by the President's No. 1 pimp, Major General Fabian Ver-
Crisologo, who is also the chief of the Palace secret police. The President's
sexual trips are classified as high priority security matters; justifiably so,
because the First Lady has her own legion of special agents spying on Marcos.
But the First Lady has been unable to crack the solid group of "seven special
agents" who would kill fellow agents spying on the President.
It is quite understandable that, for all the womanizing of the President,
public funds, including American aid dollars to the Philippines, have had to be
squandered. For the expensive romantic escapades of Mr. Marcos includes the
procurement of young girls from all over the world every now and then; the
favorite hunting grounds being the world of starlets in Hollywood and the
domicile of beautiful Eurasians in Hong Kong and Singapore.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
On the local scene, it is of common knowledge that the President ordered
the Philippine National Bank to lend a decrepit movie-making company P3
million ($750,000.00 at the time) without collaterals in exchange for the "right"
to ravish the film company's top young actress (H.K .).*2 Later on, the movie
actress starred in a movie whose title was generally accepted in Manila as
referring to "sir," (the President).
(*2. The woman-chasing propensity of Marcos is of universal knowledge. I have advisedly chosen
to use only initials to identify the women in the more, notorious sexual adventures of Marcos out of
a desire to save the women - definitely not Marcos - from public embarrassment.)
Only recently, Marcos married off a young girl (M.R.) to the son of his crony.
Unknown to the young man. the President had thoroughly ravished this girl,
who is a daughter of a one-time movie idol, after he had lured her into playing
"pelota" with him at the Malacanang Park. I remember the case of this girl
vividly, because she was even introduced to me by the President one evening
in November. 1973, when I went to see him at the pelota court at the
Malacanang Park, south of the Pasig River. At the time, Salvador Corcino Tan,
manager of the Kanlaon Broadcasting System, was also waiting for certain
instructions from the President on how the radio-TV network owned by Marcos
and cronies could be expanded by the acquisition of the facilities of the ABS-
CBN, which is owned by the Lopez family. Buddy Tan even mischievously
remarked to me, "Maganda ang bagong 'chick' ni boss." (The boss had a
beautiful new chick.) I nodded with a smile, reminding him that Mrs. Marcos
was around.
The funny part of it all was that the President had even asked the same girl
he has been going to bed with to play “pelota” with Mrs. Marcos. At the time, I
entertained the thought that Mrs. Marcos might have already adopted herself
to the ways of the Moslems, contenting herself with being the No. 1 wife, but
allowing her husband to maintain a harem.
In the interest of political glory. Imelda had come to adopt a seeming
tolerance of the philandering of Ferdie. This became evident as early as 1965,
the year the Marcoses campaigned vigorously to capture Malacanang from
incumbent President Macapagal. It was a political campaign that featured a so-
called "battle of the sexes" as both political camps formed their respective corps
of female campaigners. The Marcos' female campaigners, organized by Meldy
among the beauteous wives or daughters of Marcos' backers and/or-
supporters, were known as the "Blue Ladies." Macapagal's female corps was
made up of the "Lakambinis."
Soon Marcos found himself campaigning with the "Blue Ladies" hot only
for votes of the electorate but also for the amorous attention of his very lady
campaigners, At one time, his affairs with three of the "Blue Ladies" almost
wrecked his campaign as the Macapagal camp thought of utilizing the scandal
as "black propaganda" against Marcos. However, the more noble among the
Liberal leaders vetoed the idea.
However, the coffee shops would not be silenced. In fact, some Macapagal
campaigners made use of the coffee shop circuit to spread the Marcos amorous
affairs with his “Blue Ladies.” The talk was that Marcos would be able to win
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
more “Blue Ladies” from their respective husbands than votes. The more
notorious, of course, was Marcos’ affair with “Blue Lady” G.C. It is said
that G.C.’s husband, who found out about this affair, simply agreed to behave
like a pendejo as he loved his wife too much and could not live without her.
Besides, he was more preoccupied with helping Marcos win the presidency in
order that he would have a power base to trounce his own political rival in
his own constituency.
The affair of F.M. with G.C. also came to the attention of Mrs. Marcos.
However, Meldy restrained herself from warring on either Ferdie or G.C. as she
herself was more concerned with Marcos' winning the presidency. No, she
decided, she would not rock the boat during a most critical period of the
campaign. She would steel herself. The support of G.C. in the campaign effort
was more than providing Ferdinand with emotional comfort in bed. G.C. and
her husband were also among the heaviest financial contributors to the
campaign chest.
However, Meldy felt one day during the campaign that Ferdie's affair was
something she could no longer stand and must be stopped — diplomatically.
She summoned another "Blue Lady," a Mrs. P, and requested her to gently
warn G.C. that "the coffy shops are ripe with rumors" about her affair with
Ferdie, and that she should break off her tete-a-tete with Ferdie as "further
spread of this vile rumor" might wreck the presidential campaign efforts. Mrs. P
did as she was told by Imelda, and her beautiful friendship with G.C. ended
right then and there.
Mrs. P also incurred the ire of Ferdie who confronted her several days later
with these words: “Hoy, ano ba ang pinagsasabi mo kay (G.C.). Aba, eh, hindi
na yata titigil ng kaiiyak ang kawawang babaeng 'yan (Hey, whatever did you
tell G.C.? Gosh, it seems that the poor woman will no longer stop weeping.)
Ferdie intimated that G.C. had come to him weeping as soon as Mrs. P had
delivered Imelda’s message to G.C.
Somehow, the G.C.-FM affair ended with the presidential victory.
As President, Marcos acquired greater means and power of persuasion to
satisfy his lusts, he went after celebrities, mostly movie actresses and nightclub
singers.
A television and nightclub singer who caught the fancy of Marcos was a
woman named C.S. She was statuesque and looked very much like Imelda in
height, but she was more stately, and was equipped with a more comely face,
legs better shaped than Imelda's and bosomy. She also had a better voice than
Imelda.
C.S. was one woman Imelda really hated. At one time, Imelda even sought
out C.S. in 1970 in San Francisco - even after she had given up Ferdie — to
get her to make a statement that she had never gone to bed with Marcos. They
met in an apartment house in San Francisco. Imelda was accompanied by then
PNB Executive Vice President Ernesto Villatuya. When C.S. told Imelda to go
to hell, Imelda took a swing at C.S. who managed to duck. Villatuya, who was
standing near C.S. at the time, caught the blow and fell to the floor. For catching
Imelda's blow, Villatuya was rewarded with an appointment to the presidency
of the Philippine National Bank which he held until 1972.
Easily, however, the most notorious of the romantic escapades of Marcos
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
was his affair with Dovie; it merited world-wide attention, having appeared in
major newspapers and newsmagazines around the world.
The Ferdinand Marcos-Dovie Beams love scandal broke out into the open
in October 1970 in the Philippines and grabbed newspaper headlines for
weeks. As to be expected, it also became a major political issue against
President Marcos, and embarrassed both the Philippine and American
governments.
It was a case of rumor becoming a fact. In the beginning it was already
rumored of course that the President was having an affair with Dovie, an
American actress from Beverly Hills, but it was confined only to those in the
know. The more popular rumor in the local movie industry and the bakya crowd
is that Dovie was romantically linked to Filipino actor Pepito Rodriguez.
It turned out to be only a ruse. Even Marcos himself had encouraged the
Dovie-Pepito rumor to get public suspicion off his back. Thus the actor did not
even know he was just used as a decoy by Dovie's encouragement of his
flirtings. It was almost a perfect game as it lasted.
But a secret, no matter how well kept, cannot be hidden for long. And SQ it
was with Marcos and Dovie. The ironic part of it is that their secret, which both
of them had tried hard to conceal, was exposed and confirmed by no less than
Dovie herself. And that was when it became too hotfor both of them to handle.
Several months back Dovie had arrived in the Philippines purportedly to
star as the leading girl in the projected motion picture “Maharlika” which
revolved on the story in real life of President Marcos while he was a guerrilla
officer and head of an underground intelligence unit called “Maharlika” which
means “free man”.
The film was shot all right, which was how Dovie was introduced to the
movie industry. Because of her good public relations and of course her pretty
looks, she became almost an instant hit with the general public. Soon she
started gracing the news, gossip columns, and cover pages. After all American
actresses are a rarity in the local scene.
It was businessman Potenciano llusorio, a crony of President Marcos, who
made possible Dovie's casting in the film. Through Paul Mason, a producer at
Universal Studio in Hollywood, llusorio got Dovie. His interest in the picture was
obvious. After all if it was based on the life of his crony. President Marcos, it
had to be good. It was his way of serving a good friend.
Dovie was recruited from among several names. She turned out to be no
less than what President Marcos had specified - beautiful, intelligent, friendly,
game but secretive. Apparently Marcos and llusorio did not only want an
American actress; they wanted somebody who was game enough for Marcos
to make love with while the picture was being filmed.
Marcos had been known to his close friends and others in the know as a
woman chaser. His expensive taste for beautiful women was already an open
secret to them. And Dovie was intended to be just one of those things. After all,
as they say in government, what are we in power for?
Naturally when Dovie landed in the Philippines, llusorio followed the script
to the letter. He introduced her to "Fred" without identifying him as no less than
the President of the Philippines. From :here "Fred" took over the situation. And
characteristic of his blitzkrieg style, he simply battered down her defenses.
Later he told her the truth.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Thus began a very secret loves affair that was to last for several months
without the First Lady, Imelda Marcos, knowing it at first. The Filipino people
did not know that their President was keeping an American mistress behind
their back, thanks to the loyalty of his cronies who were in on the secret.
There was senior presidential aide, Gen. Fabian Ver, commander of the
elite Presidential Guard Battalion at Malacanang Palace who, by the nature of
his position, had to know what was happening inside and outside the palace.
And indeed. he played his role well.
If Paul Mason in reality had acted as the procurer, and Potenciano. Ilusorio
as the pimp, Gen. Ver served as the bouncer. He was always on the eternal
lookout — and fear of - the First Lady and her aides, as well as other persons.
Since Marcos and Dovie could not be seen together, it was through Ver that
the President many times had to transmit messages to her. And on several
instances, it was Ver who served as guard whenever Marcos made love to
Dovie.
Their secret rendezvous for such love affairs was a $300,000 mansion on
Northwestern St. in Greenhills, San Juan, Rizal, a suburb of Manila. Formerly
owned by Ilusorio, Marcos supposedly bought it for Dovie. It was luxurious and
complete with a swimming pool and isolated from the prying eyes of the pub-
lic. It was almost a perfect love nest.
It was there that Marcos and Dovie made love behind the back of his wife,
the First Lady. Day or night, it did not matter. Even in the middle of a busy
schedule for the President. He even slept there at times, especially when Mrs.
Imelda Marcos was on her usual expensive shopping sprees abroad.
Until Dovie came, Marcos more or less was a hit-and-run driver. He did hot
stick to one woman that long. But it seemed that Dovie was different. She was
special. And if Dovie were to be believed, it was a case of true love, yes, for
both of them. Even if the whole thing has started in bad faith, in one, or both.
Soon Marcos and Dovie had to agree on an official residence for her. She
had already, like him, become a public figure by virtue of her being an imported
American actress from Hollywood, and Filipinos in general were crazy over
anybody or anything from Hollywood due to their “stateside mentality.”
So President Marcos rented a house on Princeton St. in Mandaluyong,
Rizal, just near the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club, where another crony of
his, Diosdado Bote, was the general manager. That is how Bote came into the
picture. He served as guide and another lookout for Dovie and Marcos. It was
here that Dovie entertained any request for press interviews, although she
actually lived with Marcos in Greenhills, San Juan.
If Dovie’s houses — private and official — served a good purpose for her
and Marcos, so was her reported romantic link to actor Pepito Rodriguez. She
met him at one of the press conferences arranged by the local movie industry
to promote certain pictures. It looked like love at first sight — to the movie
media and general public anyway.
Soon the gossip cofumns and wagging tongues filled the air with talks of a
Dovie-Pepito romance. Teenage clubs sprouted promoting such an affair.
Pepito, scion of a rich family, at the time was already a popular actor. The public
thought his being steady with Dovie just tickled his fans no end — and hers too.
But Dovie and Marcos were having their last laugh, and poor Pepito did not
even know that he was just being toyed around like a decoy to divert public
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
suspicion, if there was any at the time, from the very real love interludes
between Marcos and Dovie.
But the First Lady, Imelda Marcos, was not sleeping. The instinct of a
woman, after all, cannot be underestimated. And she was no exception. With
so many aides serving her, it was but natural that soon she began to hear of
gossips about her naughty husband having another affair, this time with an
American actress. Her pride was hurt, and at that point the situation entered a
different twist.
When Imelda was finally convinced that there was truth to such rumor, she
made her own plans. She had her own husband President watched by her
aides, and his aides in turn watched her aides. It was a weird situation, with
both their aides caught in thecrossfire of a gathering storm. They felt very
uneasy, not wanting to displease anyone of them who after all were their own
bosses.
The opposition Liberal Party was also doing its own Sherlock Holmes
sleuthing. Soon its intelligence operatives discovered the Marcos-Dovie love
nest and began digging up more dirty details. Wagging tongues in both mass
media and the general public also got busy.
At this point the motion picture "Maharlika" finally was completed after so
many delays and minor controversies. But it was to be a complete waste, for it
was never shown in the Philippines. It was bruited about that the First Lady, not
wanting to be humiliated by the film, stopped it.
It must have been during this time that both Marcos and Dovie realized that
their days were numbered. With their love affair becoming a subject of public
talk, it must have dawned on them that their love interludes, good while they
lasted, had to come to an end whether they liked it or not as it was already
getting out of their control.
In one of their subsequent lovemakings Marcos and Dovie thus exchanged
souvenirs - for Dovie, with a tape-recorded voice of Marcos singing the popular
llocano folk song Pamulinawen (the love bird) and some other personal stuff;
for Marcos, nude pictures of Dovie he himself took. What Marcos did not know
at the time was that Dovie was tape-recording warbling during their love
encounter, complete with moans and bed creakings.
After this, when the situation became really too hot for President Marcos,
he stopped seeing Dovie to play it safe. At first she did not mind it for she knew
the predicament he was in. Because she had learned in fact to love him, and
he had made her believe he'too loved her as much.
But soon agents of the First Lady began to harass her. Mrs. Marcos
apparently wanted her out of the way. There were even talks that unless she
left the country something might happen to her. She did not like that kind of
rumor. Besides she still believed that President Marcos would not allow
anything bad to happen to her, even if his own wife was behind the harassment.
In fact he had made her understand that he had fallen out of love with his wife.
Marcos was recorded as having explained that his falling out with his wife
was because "Imelda has viginitis." After listening to the tape of this statement
about her by her husband, Imelda was reported to have hurled the tape
recorder in Marcos' face.
Dovie at any rate made moves to reach the President to get reassurance.
But this time he became hard to see. His cronies like llusorio and Ver could
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
only say that he was too busy. Soon it dawned on her that he was actually
avoiding her, not because he did not love her anymore, but to protect his
political future. She clung to that thought.
The situation turned from bad to worse when, after a visit to Hollywood, she
returned to the Philippines to find her house which Marcos had bought and
given to her as their love nest was no longer hers. Then she knew that she had
lost President Marcos, although she still would like to make a clearcut
assurance or clarification from him.
Dovie got emotionally upset, affecting her physical condition, until finally
she landed at the hospital. At about this time the press was already hot on her
heels. So she had to check in incognito. Up to that time she did not want any
interview with the news media for fear that it might only aggravate the situa-
tion. For one thing, she did not really want to confirm that Marcos was her secret
lover although it was already beginning to be the talk of the town.
But the more Dovie remained silent, the more agents of the First Lady
harassed her. Finally even no less than the commissioner on immigration,
Edinundo Reyes, who was close to the First Lady, himself tried to serve a
deportation notice on her — first at the Manila Hilton before she got sick, and
now at the Manila Doctors Hospital where she had checked in.
That was the last straw for her. Dovie at that time realized that her great lover,
President Marcos, was not actually protecting her, that perhaps he himself
wanted her out of the country to get the heat off of him. And the more she felt
bad when she heard that Marcos had branded her a cheap woman by way of
denying he had anything to do with her. Under pressure from the press she
finally admitted her romantic link to Marcos.
Thus the battleline was drawn. Dovie resisted the repeated attempts of
Immigration Commissioner Reyes to deport her. She stuck to her rights,
explaining that she had not committed any crime, and that she would leave the
country on her own voluntary free will and not because she was being deported
as an undesirable alien. Even llusorio and Honorio Poblador also tried to
convince her to leave. They were apparently more scared of the First Lady.
Being an American citizen, the U.S. Embassy in Manila had to intervene.
Ambassador Henry Byroade sent his aides to protect her from further
harassments while at the same time careful not to antagonize the President
and the First Lady who were both implicated in the Dovie Beams case. The
U.S. Embassy booked her at the Bay View Hotel which is just across the street
to keep a close watch on her.
Dovie was so mad that she decided to get out of the country not because
she was chickening out of the situation but just to get it over with. But as a final
step before her departure, against the advice of U.S. Embassy officials, she
called a press conference to prove once and for all what she had stated earlier,
which is that she and President Marcos had really been lovers.
During the press conference Dovie produced and played a tape recording
of her love encounter with Marcos, complete with moans, murmurs, creakings
of bed, and even a love song which Marcos himself sang under the tune of
Pamulinawen which every Filipino knew to be his favorite llocano song. His
voice and that of Dovie were doubtless genuine.
With that, Ambassador Byroade's aides hustled Dovie to the airport. In her
wake, she left a whole country reeling from the impact of the worst love scandal
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
in Philippine history. Newspapers, television and radio stations screamed with
news of the celebrated Marcos-Dovie secret love affair. It was November
1970/3
(*3. During the first "commune" staged by student revolutionaries at the University of the
Philippines, the students commandeered the university radio station and broadcast continuously
over it a looped tape recording of Marcos making love to Dovie Beams. For over a week, the
President's hoarse injunctions to Dovie to commit fellatio with him boomed out over university
loudspeakers. Plardened special forces troopers called in to recapture the University campus kept
doubling up in laughter.)
But it turned out her departure did not necessarily write finis to her case.
Upon landing in Hong Kong on her way to the United States, Philippine Consul
General Rafael Gonzales, apparently acting on orders from Malacanang
Palace, "assaulted, molested, and delayed", her return to the U.S.
The consulate official blocked the departure of two of her four companions
- two maids and two photographers. Worst, she learned then and there that
Delfin Cueto, said to be a half-brother of President Marcos, had trailed her
throughout her trip to Hong Kong. Thus she feared for her life in view of Cueto's
violent reputation as a hatchet man of Marcos.
While in Hong Kong Dovie and her companions played hide and seek with
him and his conspirators. Just as in Manila, the Hong Kong newspapers played
up her story due no doubt to its international impact. Soon the British authorities
in the Crown Colony came to her rescue. The Hong Kong police threw 2,000
policemen in search for the killer, who was of course supposedly Cueto.
They later captured, disarmed, and booked him for unauthorized
possession of firearms. Later he was forced to leave the country. As for Dovie,
British and American authorities facilitated her safe return to America - but
minus her two Filipino maids whose passports the Philippine Consulate had
just cancelled.
The saga of Dovie Beams in the Philippines was not by any means over at
this point. A book which will document her love affair with President Marcos,
including facts and events she came to know while she served as his mistress,
facts and events which have relevance to the eventual declaration of martial
law in the Philippines, would be written, and she would write it herself — she
announced then.
In anticipation of that book, President Marcos through his Republic
magazine sought to destroy her credibility. Smarting obviously from the public
playing of their love tape, in April 1 971 the weekly began publication of a series
of anti-Dovie Beams articles, including her nude pictures.
Dovie retaliated by mailing a copy of the controversial love tape to Graphic
magazine, an anti-Marcos weekly, in reply to an accusation from the Marcos
camp that the tape was fake or tampered with. For a time the case rekindled
an old controversy and for a time Dovie carried the fight by remote control.
Declaration of martial law by President Marcos finally put a stop to it, what
with the news blackout. Meantime Dovie was supposed to have written a book
as she had served notice before upon her departure from the Philippines. It has
yet to come out.
Ferdie’s doctor from Switzerland left Manila recently after having completed
the sixth session of “rejuvenating injections” to maintain Marcos’ virility up to
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
standard.
On the other hand, Meldy, the OLD beauty queen, has also completed her
second “face-lifting” which, reportedly, raised her navel to a dimple on her chin.
While the dimple looks cute on her chin, the “lifting” created a new “unexpected
problem”.
It seems that everything else of Meldy has been raised up in proportion to
her navel, and Ferdie now has to search “elsewhere” to find what he can no
longer find in Meldy.
Chapter XI
Philippine 'Gulag': A Paralysis of Fear
A telling evidence on the repressive character of the military dictatorship of
Marcos is the unending interment of thousands of political prisoners in various
military stockades and concentration camps all over the Philippines. The truth
is that the entire Philippines is one vast "Gulag Archipelago" where the
Filipinos, whether inside or outside a military stockade, are subjected to
continuing deprivation of their civil rights, some of them suffering cruel and
unjust punishments in the hands of verdugos.
The undermining effect of the military concentration camps on Filipino
society constitutes an open and apparently unhealing wound, but at this stage
it would be difficult to quantify the national tragedy represented by the
indiscriminate detention without charges of non-supporters and opponents of
the Marcos military regime, or the influence it continues to have in ordinary
Philippine life.
For as long as Marcos rules as a dictator backed by the military, the horror
of internment of political prisoners would go on and on. And like Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, I must apologize to those whose plight I may be unable to
reproduce in this work for I am unable to remember or acquire knowledge of
every incident, every injustice, every cruelty of the regime, of which I was a part
and which I have renounced. As Solzhenitsyn wrote, "The whole scope of this
story, and of the truth, is beyond the capabilities of one lonely pen."
While still working for Marcos as his chief press censor, I have had
occasions to look into the isolated cases of political prisoners. One of them was
the case of Liliosa Hilao, whose death was brought to my attention two days
after it happened by her own sister. I did bring this matter to the attention of
President Marcos, but he never saw it fit to inform me about the action he had
taken on the most glaring "atrocity ever committed on a political prisoner under
the martial regime.
The matter of political prisoners has always been a source of monumental
embarrassment for Marcos. He even earned the sobriquet of "lying dictator" for
his many prevarications on the issue of prisoners of conscience. That the
Marcos military regime has adopted as part of its official policy the shameless
resort to prevarications, falsifications and even bribery of a congressional
witness, to mislead or prevent the United States and other foreign governments
from gaining full knowledge, on political repression and tyranny in the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Philippines is an established fact. This has been confirmed not just by the world
press, but by world statesmen, notable among them leading members of the
U.S. Congress. The U.S. congressional record is replete with ringing truths on
the various devious ways by which the military regime of Marcos has trifled with
the truth about the Philippine situation.
Witness Rep. Michael Harrington (D-Mass) who declared in the House of
Representatives on June 3, 1975 as follows:*i
(* 1 . See Page E 2816, “Congressional Record - Extension of remarks.”)
"Mr. Speaker, this week Mr. Eraser's Subcommittee of International
Relations is holding hearings to investigate political repression in the
Philippines. I urge my colleagues to follow these hearings closely because
they concern two very important issues. The first is political repression
itself; the second is the manner in which the Marcos government has
responded to inquiries about its policies both to Members of Congress and
to State Department officials.
"I am also extremely concerned with the manner in which the
Philippine Government has responded to official inquiries by Members of
Congress and State Department officials. The Marcos regime has not
hesitated to mislead officials of our Government. First they denied that any
prisoners were being held. Then they implied that the prisoners, whose
existence was earlier denied, would soon be released. Now they are silent
on the matter.
“It does not make sense to me that a nation as powerful internationally
as we are can justify the use of full force against a small nation that
captures one of our merchant ships while continuing military aid to a small
nation that is both politically repressive and less than open in its diplomatic
relations with us. If we are unwilling to make clear to President Marcos that
we seriously disapprove of his policies, then I wonder how seriously other
nations will take our own pledge of support to democratic govern-
ments &nd the universal protection of human rights.
“I have contacted Robert J. McCloskey, the Assistant Secretary of
State of Congressional Relations, and he assures me that the Philippine
Government is fully aware of the concern being voiced in the Congress
and by the American people over the continued detention of individuals
without charge or trial. But that assurance itself makes clear that President
Marcos does not take our concern seriously, for if he did, he would have
changed his policies.”
Senator James R. Abourezk gave the Senate on April 23, 1975, a detailed
account of the various attempts of the military regime of Mr. Marcos to lie about
conditions obtaining in the Philippines.
In a speech on "Human Rights in the Philippines,” *2 Senator Abourezk
declared:
(* 2 . See Page S 6588, “Congressional Record - Senate” of April 23, 1975.)
Mr. President, I have become increasingly concerned about the
reports of repression of human and civil rights in the Philippines,
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
particularly as symbolized by the continued imprisonment of Eugenio
Lopez, Jr., Sergio Osmena III, Senator Benigno Aquino, and several
thousand others, xxx
"My concern led me to write to Philippine Ambassador Romualdez on
January 6. 1 soon received a response dated January 8 from the Philippine
Charge d'Affaires enclosing a speech by Philippine President Ferdinand
Marcos delivered December 11,1 974, to the Philippine people. I regret to
inform the Senate that in both the letter and the speech the Philippine
Government was less than candid. Some of Marcos' claims and the true
facts are illustrative.
"The Charge d'Affaires and President Marcos both stated that the
President ordered that Mr. Lopez have 'the privilege to visit his home'.
"The fact is, however, that neither Mr. Lopez nor Mr. Osmena have been
allowed to visit their homes, but both remain under guard at the military
hospital which is their prison.
“The Charge d Affaires and President Marcos both state Lopez — as
well as Osmena — were charged August 19, 1973, with involvement in
eight attempts on the life of President Marcos, that the government has
confessions of the ‘co-accused’ — including Osmena — and that the
President has ordered Lopez and Osmena tried before a civilian court as
common criminals.
“According to reports outside the Marcos government, however,
Lopez and Osmena were arrested separately in November 1972, shortly
after martial law was declared. More than 5,000 Filipinos have been
arrested and detained in this fashion. Lopez and Osmena remained in
prison without charged being presented against them until they began a
‘hunger strike’ on November 18, 1974. They smuggled out statements
protesting the continued detention ofpolitical prisoners,’ including
themselves, and other alleged abuses under martial law such as the
absence of a free press and ah independent judiciary. On the 10th day of
the hunger strike they were informed that they had been charged with in-
volvement in a conspiracy to assassinate the President, and that the
charges had been filed in August 1 973.
“On the 11th day of the hunger strike the two men ended their fast
upon an understanding that many of the ‘political prisoners’ would be
released, that they would be released shortly and that the charges against
them would be dismissed.
“On December 1, 1974, the Philippine press published the alleged
‘confession’ of Osmena. Osmena claims it is a fraud, but in any event it
contains no confession of any involvement in any assassination plot and
does not mention Lopez at all.
“The same day the Philippine press also published a statement of an
unidentified ‘suspected participant’ that contends that young Osmena, his
father, and young Lopez were involved. It is a rambling, disconnected tale
which strains one’s credulity.
“But even were these charges believable, despite the President’s
claim that he had ordered a trial of the two men, no steps have been taken
toward bringing them to trial despite their repeated demands for a public
impartial trial on the merits.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
“According to President Marcos’ speech, Lopez and Osmena broke
their fast upon being confronted with the evidence against them.
"To this day the two men have not been presented with any evidence
against them. They ended their hunger strike based upon the promises of
the Philippine Secretary of National Defense that they and other political
prisoners would be released. The Secretary has since denied making
these promises, but I have a copy of a letter he wrote to Lopez on the last
day of the hunger strike agreeing to let Lopez be free on 'pass every now
and then’ and agreeing to work toward house arrest by Christmas 'and in
due time, hopefully, your temporary release from detention.' Lopez'
attorneys, who met with the Secretary at the time, claim there was a further
promise of full release by February.
"Since this case has attracted the attention of many of my colleagues,
numerous inquiries by Members of Congress and by the State Department
have been made to the Philippine Government through the Philippine
Embassy. The Philippine Secretary of Public Information and other
officials regularly replied that the two men had been given rights to visit
their homes while preparing 'their defense'. I regret to say that
this, too, was not true. Neither man has been allowed home visits and as
to preparing their defense neither has been permitted to see his counsel
even in prison. This, too, has been verified by the State Department.
“These are not the first examples of misinformation promulgated by
the Philippine Government in the case of the Lopez family. In December
1972, the Washington Star-News reported that ‘sources close to Marcos’
had implicated the elderly father of the imprisoned Lopez, Eugenio Lopez,
Sr. — who now lives in the United States — as a member of a ‘rightist plot’
against the President. This information was reportedly the result of
investigations by the Philippine Government and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, In response to a query by a Lopez attorney, acting FBI
Director L. Patrick Gray replied in writing that ‘the FBI conducted no
investigation’ concerning Eugenio Lopez, Sr.
“In the speech of December 11, President Marcos responded to
continued claims by Philippine religious groups, Amnesty International, the
foreign press, and others that many of the political prisoners had been
tortured and even murdered. Marcos stated that — no one, but no one,
has been tortured.
“Nevertheless, pressure mounted for an investigation. On December
28, Manila Archbishop Jaime Sin demanded an impartial investigation of
the torture claims. On January 2,1975, President Marcos ordered the
military to investigate and two weeks later they admitted that there had
been incidents of torture and recommended stem measures to correct the
situation. No corrective measures have been reported, but the admission
is at least some progress. President Marcos has misinformed the
American people as to the true state of affairs in the Philippines in regard
to other aspects of human and civil rights. In an interview by Edwin
Newman on the NBC ‘Today’ show, September 2, 1974, he was asked:
“ ‘Is it correct that there is still about 5,000 of your political opponents
in prison?’
“Marcos replied:
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
“ ‘Of course, not. We have just released the last of the detention
prisoners who are not facing criminal charges.’
“Nevertheless, in his December 1 1 speech President Marcos stated -
“ ‘In our jails today, there are 5,234 people under detention in direct
consequence of the martial law proclamation. Four thousand sixty-nine of
these are ordinary criminal offenders. One thousand one hundred sixty-
five are political detainees.’
“This less than two months after he had said there were none.
Fortunately, Marcos has ordered the release of a total of more than 1,500
of these prisoners which is more than 1 ,1 65 political detainees he admitted
to in December. This progress seems to be the one achievement of the
publicity caused by the Lopez-Osmena hunger strike.
“On the same ‘Today’ show interview President Marcos stated that
“there is ‘no censorship’ of the media, and explained that the media was
controlled by a committee ofpublishers’ and ‘the owners of radio and TV
stations’.
“What he did not tell the American people was that all newspapers, as
well as radio and television facilities, except a handful owned by Marcos’
relatives and friends, had been seized by the Government in September
1972. Moreover, these facilities had been turned over — sometimes with
partial payment and often with none — to newspapers and broadcasters
who were friends, relatives, and business associates of President Marcos
and his wife. No publication, broadcast or distribution of printed material
is permitted which reflects adversely on the President and his policies. The
present captive nature of the media has been verified by an independent
study by Dr. John L. Lent, associate professor of communications of
Temple University. The prestigious industry magazine, Editor and
Publisher on January 25,1975, reported that ‘freedom of the press has
disappeared’ in the Philippines.
“While I am concerned with the continued imprisonment of Lopez and
Osmena without due regard for their legal rights, they are but symptoms
of broader and deeper questions in regard to Philippine-American
relations.
“The Philippines is now well into its third year of martial law and more
than a year beyond the end of the normal elected term of President
Marcos. By his own count some 3,500 persons remain in prison without
bail, without trial, and without due process. The writ of habeas corpus is
still suspended. The right to visit with legal counsel, at least in some cases,
is not permitted. Judicial process apparently is not free and independent
since military cases are reviewable by the President, and civil judges now
serve at the pleasure of the President.
“The Philippine press and media are completely controlled by relatives
and allies of Marcos. An extensive Government press information office
feeds them the news.
“Philippine elections are not to be conducted in the foreseeable future.
Marcos claims he rules on the basis of referendums in which the people
vote in public on whether he should continue. The referendum of February
27 empowered the President to appoint the nation’s mayors.
“To me this almost complete denial of human and civil rights by
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
America’s old friend, the Philippines, is a deplorable state of affairs.
Equally bothersome to me is the fact that President Marcos and his
subordinates have not squared with the world press, the State
Department, or the U.S. Congress, in regard to both specific questions and
the overall state of human and civil rights in that country.”
Early this year, a veteran senator of the United States, Vance Hartke,
became so exasperated with the lies and half-truths being dished out by the
Philippine martial regime to inquiring members of Congress on the true situation
in the Philippines. On January 29, 1975, Senator Hartke addressed a letter to
the Philippine ambassador to Washington, DC, stating, among others that:
"Finally, I have seen answers of the Philippine government to
inquiries on this situation from other members of Congress. This is not the
true state of affairs. I believe that a friend of the United States such as the
Philippines should exercise the highest degree of candor with this nation's
officials."
The Documentation Committee for Philippine Political Prisoners, a creation
of the National Coordinating Committee of the Anti-Martial Law Movement
(Philippines), has documented a number of notorious cases of political
imprisonment under the Marcos military regime. Without any reservations, I
reproduce the noteworthy cases and would like to confirm their veracity.
I. NILO TAYAG
Even before the declaration of martial law in the Philippines, the trend
towards increased militarization by the Marcos regime became crystal clear in
the arrest and detention of Nilo Tayag and other political prisoners. On June
II, 1970, Nilo Tayag, the National Chairman of the Kabataang Makabayan
(Patriotic Youth) was arrested in a secluded barrio on Laguna province. Tayag
has been detained since that time under charges of violating the Anti-
SubverSion Act (Republic Act 1700) which outlawed membership in the
Communist Party of the Philippines.
While attending the University of the Philippines, Tayag joined the
mainstream of nationalist student activities and became a charter member of
the Student Cultural Association of the U.P. (S.C.A.U.P.). In 1961, the
S. C. A. U.P. -stormed the House Committee on Un-Filipino Activities of the
Philippine Legislature to protest their undemocratic and witch-hunting
character. The active organizing and education work of these early protests set
the basis for the founding of the KM in 1964, in which Nilo Tayag developed
quickly as a leading member.
As the KM developed rapidly as the strongest and most militant of the
patriotic mass organizations, the Marcos government launched a series of
fascist attacks to remove the organization’s leadership and cripple the mass
movement. First came the arrest of Nilo Tayag.
Finally, Marcos moved openly towards martial law with the suspension of
the writ of habeas corpus in August, 1971. Under this act, Marcos could have
anyone arrested without warrant, and they can be detained indefinitely without
immediate charges or trial. The Marcos regime moved quickly to single out
Primitivo Mijares Page Z3Z
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
the many new leaders of the national democratic movement and have them
arrested and detained.
Although some were later released, Nilo Tayag and other key leaders have
been kept imprisoned in Camp Crame for years now as the Marcos regime
hopes their hardships will discourage others from joining the resistance
movement. However, since the declaration of martial law, the prisons and
concentration camps bulge with the thousands of new political prisoners who
have followed in the resistance much like Nilo Tayag. Within the confines of the
prison camps, Nilo has remained an active leader fighting for better conditions
for all prisoners and keeping alive the spirit of resistance. In the last few months,
he has borne the brunt of, the military's suppression even inside the camp,
being held in solitary confinement, deprived of exercise, with visiting privileges
for his family cut to 5-10 minutes. It is speculated that this harassment is
somehow linked to the military's discovery of an escape tunnel in the Fort
Bonifacio Youth Rehabilitation Center after the escape of two activist leaders,
Ma. Lorena Barros and Judy Taguiwalo. According to a letter from Sen. Jose
Diokno requesting an end to this harassment of Tayag, Diokno states, "I asked
him (Tayag) if he had admitted having taken part in any violation of prison
regulations. He replied that he had not even been questioned before being
thrown into solitary confinement, and that he had nothing improper or illegal
among his personal effects."
II. LILIOSA HILAO
Liliosa Hilao, 21 years old, was the seventh child of an impoverished
fisherman from Bulan, Sorsogon. She would have graduated summa cum laude
at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. Lily was the President of the
student body in her university and was active in fighting for academic freedom
in her school. Before martial law, she was the editor of Hasik, the official
newspaper of the Pamantasan. More than anything else, Lily became an active
national democrat during the first quarter storm of 1970. She joined the
Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan (Democratic Youth Alliance), then the
Aletheia. Together with other activists, she worked in the slums of Intramuros,
helping the squatters with their basic needs.
Her active life of serving the people changed drastically when on April 4,
1 973, a group of 1 5 men alighted near the Hilao residence in Project 3, Quezon
City. The heavily armed men and a woman who strode toward the apartment
were a raiding team including Col. Felix, Lt. Castillo, Lt. Garcia, Sgt. de Sagun,
George Ong, a certain Felix, and a WAC (Women's Auxiliary Constabulary)
called Ester. The rest of the military squad positioned themselves some 20
meters away.
The Hilao residence was ransacked. Her mother, who was in a plaster cast
recovering from an accident, the youngest daughter Gigi, 16, and the second
to the youngest daughter, Marie, were at the apartment at the time it was raided.
Gigi was held by the WAC and was interrogated in one room. Marie was also
held by two men in another room.
At about 3 to 4 p.m., Marie managed to escape. She leapt over the high
concrete walls and past the howling dogs. She didn’t even mind the warning
that she would be shot. The military men were so furious they decided to bring
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Gigi to Camp Crame f but brought her back at around 6 p.m.
Realizing what was happening, a neighbor waited for Lily at the bus stop
where she usually got off after school to warn her not to go home. Lily
proceeded to her brother-in-law, Capt. Rogelio Roque of the PC (Philippine
Constabulary) Special Forces and the CIS (Central Intelligence Service),
thinking that he could be trusted and that she could get some help from him.
She asked if he could provide her money to escape and secret aid for the
release of her sister. But things turned out differently. At around 9 p.m., she
was brought home by her brother-in-law who traitorously turned her in to the
brutal military men. The torture of Lily began.
Events prior to her death
Cries of protest were heard from her place by the neighbors until 1: 30 to
2:00 a.m. A loud anguished scream was heard and that was the time she was
being undressed by a Lt. Castillo. There was much tension in the neighborhood
as she shouted for help. Though the neighbors were anxious to rescue her,
they couldn't do anything. Lily struggled so hard that the attempt at rape failed.
Shortly afterward she was brought to Camp Crame, handcuffed. On April
5 there was no news about her. The family was under heavy surveillance all
throughout the day. Lily's cousin Arnold, who was also severely tortured, was
not able to work the next day.
April 6 was the last day Lily was seen alive. The youngest daughter Gigi
was summoned by the WAC to bring clothes for Lily at Crame. She wasn't
brought back that day.
On April 7, early in the morning, one of the guards in the house received
a phone call that someone was dead. The owner of a house where he received
the call asked who was dead. And the guard just replied a "friend." That
afternoon Gigi came home and had to inform a neighbor through a placard
saying, "Sister is dead."
Mutilated
When the victim's body was turned over to the family, it was clothed in Lily's
bloodied and torn skirt, while the entire torso was covered with bandages. Her
underclothing was missing and her face, especially her mouth, was scorched
by muriatic acid. Her neck and throat were badly burned. Two pin punctures
were found on the arm. In an attempt to prevent an impartial autopsy, the
internal organs were removed. Hypodermic needles were deliberately jabbed
into the arms to make it appear as if she was a drug addict. Her eyes and mouth
were wide open. These observations were made at the V. Luna Hospital.
Versions of her death
The reasons that the military gave on her death were inconsistent. Her
torturer said she had committed suicide by taking muriatic acid found in the
men’s room in Camp Crame. In a telegram to her teachers and classmates at
the Pamantasan, the military said she had died of drug addiction. The most
ridiculous of all reasons was sent to her father in Bulan: “Lily had died of a heart
attack.”
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Bits of information
The day before the burial, the military tried to fool the students by
attempting to hide Lily’s body. The body was taken out of the coffin and placed
in a stretcher purportedly for re-autopsy at the Funeraria Popular. The military
actually tried to hide it in the basement and planned to transfer it to another
place but this plan failed because a group of students were coming to the
Memorial Center at that time. The guards who were trying to get near the coffin
were driven away by the angry students and teachers who formed a human
cordon around Lily’s body. It is speculated that the reason why the military
took special interest in Lily and her family was because her brother has been
the object of a manhunt in Bicol where he is suspected of being the finance
officer of the NPA.
III. FORTUNATO BAYOTLANG
The case of Fortunato Bayotlang came to us in a letter sent through a
missionary order which has a mission in Mindanao. It contains an account of
the torture and murder of Fortunato Bayotlang, a salesman for a
pharmaceutical firm in Davao. The identity of the author as well as his religious
order were withheld for obvious reasons.
Dear X,
In August, I began an assigned 6-week language review to acquire some
polish and get the unknowns to fall into place. During this time I became
involved in a case involving the Tagum constabulary police and Davao
pharmaceutical firm salesman, Fortunato Bayotlang.
Fortunato was beaten to death by the constabulary security unit -
apparently a case of mistaken identity, and his two younger brothers, Fernando,
15, and Ruperto, 8, were imprisoned. They had been accompanying Fortunato
because it was Saturday, and they had no school. I was asked by the
Association of Major Religious Superiors to photograph the deceased and
gather evidence for them two days after the incident occurred.
Two days more passed, and I became concerned for the welfare of the
two younger brothers, still imprisoned in the Tagum stockade. I gathered
members of the Justice and Peace Commission of Bishop Regan had
attempted to get them released, and/or find out what the military charges of
subversion consisted of. They had been released overnight to attend the wake
and funeral of their brother, under armed escort, so we found them at their
family home and humiliated the guard to get him out of hearing range so we
could talk to the boys.
Fernando, obviously relieved and happy to see us, told of six plain-
clothesmen curbing his brother’s company car, taking them to the PC
compound and interrogating them. Fortunato was handcuffed behind his back
and continually punched enroute to the stockade while being asked over and
over, “Where is Dodung?” (This is the only question they ever asked any of
the three). At the compound, Fortunato was taken to a small shed less than 30
feet behind the command post building. The two younger boys were
manhandled by two men in a parked car less than 10 feet away while three
men “cared for” Fortunato.
"Father," Fernando told me, "Fortunato screamed, begged, pleaded — and
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his last words were 'if you are going to kill me, or must kill me, please shoot me
because I've done no wrong.' Also, the men mauling him came out three times
in blood-soaked clothing to get more 2x2's because they were breaking too
easily." This - in spite of the fact that the Bayotlangs are civilians, and there was
no warrant on file, no identification of the arresting officers, no "bookings," no
civil liberties.
A doctor in a cell over 50 yards away, upon hearing the screams and seeing
the bloody clothing, threatened to file charges against the military unless
Fortunato was taken to the Davao Provincial Hospital of Tagum. There, he was
administered first aid, and a hospital employee told me, "We have no facilities.
Father, for a man who has been that badly mauled." Three hours later, he died
of "subdural hemorrhage caused by severe beating to the head and the whole
body," according to the coroner's report.
During this same period, Fernando was being taken by his captors to see
Fortunato at the hospital. A detour was made through a banana plantation, and
he was tied "spread eagle" around a tree. He was then beaten with clasped,
clenched fists, jabbed with a rifle butt and barrel, and struck with a pistol. This
is part of a "tactical investigation" - no, not for a commando - for a 15-year-old
boy.
At present, Fernando is frightened by all strangers, and physically runs from
them. He also continually extends and retracts his tongue unconsciously — the
result of another “tactical investigation” where his tongue was repeatedly pulled,
beaten against his teeth, and burned with cigarettes. He now lives with Brother
J. C., MM. in Sigaboy to allay his anxiety.
The case of Fortunato Bayotlang and his brothers was thoroughly
investigated by the Police Constabulary and the Department of National
Defense because Bishop Regan and Maryknoll would give them no peace.
Military findings were that there is a case, and warrants for arrest have been
issued, but none of the six Constabulary Security Unit members have been
apprehended, although they have been frequently seen loitering in the market
place. The only ordinary Police Constabulary involved was Fernando’s mauler,
who was demoted. When I told Fernando the demotion was given for the
constabulary’s “indiscretion,” he replied: “If that’s what an ‘indiscretion’ is,
I’d hate to see what a ‘mistake’ looked like.”
IV. MARSMAN ALVAREZ
Marsman Alvarez, 24, was the brother of exiled ex-Constitutional Convention
delegate Heherson (Sonny) Alvarez, who is active in the anti-martial law
movement in the U.S. At the time of his brutal murder, he was a senior
university student in Manila.
In a letter to Secretary of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile, his brother had
described him as an "idealistic young man," who shared his convictions of
freedom and democracy in the Philippines and who opposed martial law.
The military's attempts to turn him into a government informer had failed.
Friends testified that on June 26, 1 974, Marsman was picked up from their
house, then his mutilated body was found near the town's church the following
morning. "He was mangled beyond recognition," was the identifying remark by
a friend who recognized him only by his hair and pants. The killers had
completely beaten up his face, and his jaw was broken. They had cut his nose
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and scratched out one of his eyeballs. They had pulled out all his teeth but two
and had slashed his tongue. After viewing the body, Marsman's father
described that, "his head was beaten to a pulp, his face was bashed beyond
recognition and his throat was stabbed on both sides just below the jaw."
The gory crime caught public attention, and the government, alarmed over
the widespread public knowledge on the true circumstances of the killing,
immediately went to work suppressing the truth. In a press release, Secretary
Enrile quickly put the blame on the New People's Army (NPA). In this deception,
he credited Marsman's performance as a government informer but who was
foolish to reveal his military connections in his "undercover work."
Contrary to the government reports, however, Marsman was killed in full
view of several citizens near the church. His killers are known to the people in
the community where he was killed. The names of the killers, including the
witnesses were furnished in a complaint to Secretary Enrile. Unfortunately, the
government has chosen to suppress the truth and negate in a compulsive
design to make it appear that my brother was killed by the NPA,” Heherson
said.
Months after Marsman’s death, Archbishop Jaime Sin of Manila mentioned
the murder to a group of foreign correspondents. Government intelligence
agents then visited Marsman’s relatives to convince them to accept “hush”
money. The offer was promptly rejected.
His father, after a period of prolonged depression and extreme frustration
over the death of Marsman succumbed to heart failure five months later.
V. PERLASOMONOD
Tagum, Davao del Norte, 1 April - A political prisoner, a member of the New
People's Army, suffered a miscarriage two weeks after a block of ice was
placed on her chest.
The torture of Perla Somonod, 24, of Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental, was
done in a safehouse inside the PC barracks in Tagum, Davao del Norte in the
first week of December, 1974.
The military claimed that Perla played basketball so that she would lose her
baby.
Perla denied this stating, "I wanted to keep my baby. Why would I insist on
hospitalization if I really had intentions of losing it? "
Two sworn statements on her pregnant condition and on her torture were
made by her at the Provincial Capitol of Tagum.
Perla was two months pregnant when the Intelligence Division of the PC
arrested her and a companion in a supply house in Sasa, Davao City on
November 25, 1974.
She was in charge of the medicine and ammunition supply for members of
the New People’s Army to which she and her husband belonged.
Perla immediately underwent interrogation.
They asked her who her fellow cadres were and where they could be found.
She merely stared at them.
They asked her who and where her husband was.
Again, she merely stared at them.
Their interrogation of her lasted from November 28 to December 6, 1974.
Unable to extract vital information from their “hard-headed" captive (an
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adjective the military would often use against her), they proceeded with their
torture of her.
They placed a block of ice on her chest.
They ordered her to put her arms around the block of ice and to clasp her
hands before it.
Slowly, the ice melted, sending trickles of cold water down her chest. . . her
arms ... her legs.
Perla felt no pain, only the cold seeping into every pore of her body.
When the ice was merely a pool of water around Perla, she could hardly
move her hands. These had become numb.
After that, she developed a cough. Every time she expelled air, it seemed
as if her stomach were being wrenched and going along with the air out of her
mouth.
The cough persisted for two weeks. The fetus was slowly slipping out of
her womb.
On a Friday evening, December 18, Perla requested her captors to bring
her to the hospital, for she was feeling stomach pains.
She was accompanied to the Tagum Provincial Hospital by Captain
Roberto Cuyos, Officer-in-Charge of the detainees and the Citizen's Home
Defense Force (CHDF) in Davao del Norte.
The next day, December 1 9, she again asked to be brought to the hospital,
for her stomach pains had intensified.
But the captain told her, "Why should we bring you again to the ospital?
Anyway, you already have your medicines. Besides, we cannot afford your
hospitalization."
In the evening of Saturday, December 20, Perla continued to bleed.
Perla tried desperately to keep the fetus.
But the blood kept on flowing and flowing, soaking her pants till she could
just crouch in pain.
Her friends, six of them crammed in the small, hot room, could only cry and
watch her helplessly.
When a nun visited her and the other detainees that Sunday, December
21, Perla complained of her stomach pains. She didn't know she had already
lost her baby.
It was only on a Monday, December 22, when she was brought to the
Tagum Provincial Hospital. With her was a plastic bag full of her blood. A doctor
in the hospital examined the blood inside the plastic bag. The blood had now
acquired an offensive smell. The doctor said that the plastic bag also contained
her fetus.
For those who do not understand Perla, they may say that she should have
learned her lesson.
One abortion should “teach” her to go back to the normal life that she had
with her family and friends in Gingoog City.
VI. EDDIE CENEZA
The newspapers of January 3, 1 975 listed a certain "alias" 'Rey,' 'Frank', 'Dave'
(cf, Times Journal January 3, 1975, p. 10) as among the group arrested in
connection with Fr. Edicio de la Torre. In the subsequent list published in the
papers on Sunday, January 26, 1975, his name does not reappear. What has
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
happened to this young man? Why has his name suddenly been dropped
without explanation? The following verified story provides the answers.
Association of Major Religious Superiors.
From well-informed sources we received the following report in a blatant
case of murder perpetrated by the military in Baguio City in the morning of
Monday, December 9, 1974. The report is based on an eyewitness account by
a certain Ofelia Castillo, a former public school teacher.
The murder victim was Eddie Ceneza, 21 years of age and a native of Bo.
Salinognon, San Mateo, Isabela. He was also known by the names of "Rey,"
"Dave" and "Frank" and to neighbors in Baguio Citlas "Eleazar Bartolome." He
endured the savage torment dealt by the military without compromising his
principles. The killers included such military men as Arnold Sineres and Jose
Rivera.
For a clearer picture of what happened, a narration of events in
chronological order follows:
- 8 December 1974: Eddie Ceneza and his companion Alberto Yanes were
taken, to the agents' residence at Leonila Hill. Ofelia Castillo was arrested that
same day and brought to the agents' residence. The three were then taken to
a nearby "safehouse" of the military agents.
- 9 December: All three were tortured while being interrogated. In addition
to being beaten up mercilessly, Ceneza and Yanes were made to endure
electrodes (electric shock) applied to different parts of the body. Ceneza was
continuously clubbed on the head until blood oozed out of his nose and ears.
Ofelia Castillo was stripped of her clothes, subjected to indignities, slapped,
kicked and beaten with a .38 caliber revolver. The torture session took all of
December 9 and went into the following day.
- 10 December: There was no let-up in the brutal treatment of Eddie
Ceneza. Unable to break his spirit, the military concentrated on hitting him with
a .45 caliber pistol. Later, his body was found on the pavement outside the
house apparently flung from a second floor window. Ofelia Castillo escaped
while the agents were distracted.
Alberto Yanes, Ofelia Castillo and Eddie Ceneza were mentioned by the
Times Journal of January 3, 1975, as numbering among the 30 plus persons
arrested in the same series of raids during which Fr. Edicio de la Torre SVD
and Fr. Manuel Lahoz were arrested. They were supposed to be under
military custody and were to be charged on January 25,1975 with conspiracy
to commit rebellion. But Alberto Yanes has for reasons known only to the
military “escaped”. Ofelia Castillo escaped from the military safe houses
(houses outside the prison camps where the military can ‘safely’ torture or
dispose of political prisoners) in Baguio and is now in hiding. And
Eddie Ceneza — no one knows where his remains lie, except perhaps his
killers.
VII. COMMITTED RELIGIOUS LEADERS
Even priests, nuns and lay leaders have not escaped the political
persecution of the Marcos dictatorship. As a consequence, the various religious
organizations have united to become a major voice in denouncing the
dictatorship.
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The persecution of members of the clergy by a right-wing political regime
such as Marcos' is somewhat a surprise, for religious institutions have been
historically conservative in their political and social outlook. The religious
institutions in the Philippines, which is 80% Catholic are certainly no exception
to this rule. Thus, a question that immediately comes to mind as one hears of
priests and nuns being detained as political prisoners is, "What have they done
to draw the attention of the dictatorship?" The cases cited herein show that for
the most part, these priests and nuns have distinguished themselves by their
concern for social justice in their missionary work. They have tried to develop
in the people they work with, social and political awareness, and have urged
them to take a more active role in bringing about changes in their conditions.
These priests and nuns have also pressured their religious superiors to support
and adopt social policies which are more responsive to the needs of the people.
This is true, not only of those who work with the rural population, but also of
those who work in the urban area.
For example, Fr. Jose Reyes Nacu, active in the defense of civil liberties in
his work with the Tondo (a district of Manila) urban poor was arrested on
January 29, 1973; Fr. Luis Jalandoni, who later was accused by the
government of being a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines, tried
all means to call the government's attention to the plight of the sacada (peasant)
and sugar planters in the Negros region (Southern Philippines). Among foreign
priests who were detained, Fr. Bruno Hicks and Rev. Peterson were actively
involved in peasant work organizing in the Negros sugar plantations. They were
arrested after martial law was declared for less than a month, and were
deported two weeks later. Rev. Edward Gerlock, a Maryknoll missionary and
director of Social Action in Davao, helped small Davao farmers in their fight
against the big producers of bananas who are granted vast tracts of land by the
Marcos regime. In an interview with "Associated Press," Fr. Gerlock cited the
practices of the U.S. corporations of bulldozing the people right off their lands,
and their use of aerial sprays which harm farm the people. He was arrested,
and placed under house arrest while facing deportation charges. Fr. Luigi
Riciarelli, an Italian priest, was arrested when he was framed by a Marcos PC
informer whom he had helped. His work with the poor made him a target of
suspicion by the government agents. The government, however, finds this type
of dedication, this type of humanitarian work to be "subversive" for it is under
this charge that members of the clergy have been commonly arrested.
Immediately after the martial law declaration, arrests of priests, nuns and
church leaders swept the country. Raids were conducted on dorms, chapels,
colleges and schools run by the church groups.
It is worthwhile to describe how the military personnel of Marcos conduct
the raids and arrests. The raids are usually carried out during early morning
hours. Rooms are searched, and religious books are confiscated together with
personal belongings of the occupants. The military officers feast on food they
see, they ransack files in offices, libraries, including sleeping quarters. In the
raid of St. Joseph's College, the sisters were "held-up" in their quarters and
$370 was taken from them. The military people conducting the raids never have
name tags nor carry any identifications for the victim to use in case complaints
are made.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
At St. Joseph's College, where a 50-man strong contingent of the PC
(Philippine Constabulary) raided the dormitories, Sister Marianni, the registrar
of the college, was also arrested.
In Novaliches, about 20 miles from Manila, a widely publicized raid occurred
at the Sacred Heart Novitiate. A contingent of 150 army men in "combat" gear
arrested Fr. Jose Blanco along with 20 students while at a seminar defining
goals for Christian students.
Fr. Ysingco in Misamis Oriental was arrested together with Fr. Ed Gerlock,
two days after the declaration of martial law. Fr. Tom Marti was arrested at his
Maryknoll office in Davao del Norte. Two months after martial law, Fr. Woodrow
Gubuan, the director of a radio-TV station and professor at the Sacred Heart
Seminary was also arrested. At a PC raid of the Redemptorist Monastery in
Tacloban City, Fr. Emerardo Manigo was arrested.
Raids similar to the one which descended on St. Joseph's College, were
conducted in the dormitories of Ateneo de Manila (a leading Jesuit university in
the Philippines), the Seminary of Our Lady of Angeles in Novaliches and the
Mission of the Sacred Heart in Cebu.
VIII. TORTURES
Members of the clergy, as a group, have been more fortunate than most
other groups in the type of treatment they have received under detention. The
Marcos military and police have as a rule been more considerate toward nuns
and priests than toward lay persons. This is due in part to the religious
institutions which have generally supported them. But cases of priests and nuns
being hospitalized due to injuries received while in detention are not unknown.
Fr. Edicio de la Torre, though not as brutally tortured as the prisoners/
priests who suffered almost all the tortures mentioned above (their case studies
are treated separately in another section), testified to the evidence of extreme
physical torture inflicted on fellow prisoners. Fr. Ed went on hunger strike,
together with Fr. Lahoz, after he received beatings on his stomach, to protest
the inhuman treatment they see being done on their fellow prisoners. There are
evidences of bruises, bloodied eyes, cut brows, and electric wire scars.
Josefina Karagdag, a volunteer secretary of the National Council of
Churches in the Philippines, is now under treatment for mental and nervous
breakdown at the National Mental Hospital due to the mental stress and
physical tortures she suffered during detention. Her mother is appealing
personally to newsmen and sympathizers with letters.
IX. MASS RESPONSE FROM CLERGY/SHOW OF OPPOSITION
A mass vigil prayer to protest the brutal treatment of political prisoners was held
in Septwater 1974, at the Manila Cathedral, led by Archbishop Sin of Manila.
About 5,000 attended. It was the biggest demonstration staged against the
Marcos regime by the civilian population.
Organizations like the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the
Philippines (AMRSP) and the National Council of Churches (NCCP) are the
major informants to local communities and abroad regarding political prisoners.
They have also taken on the tasks of sending protest letters and petitions about
the deplorable plights of prioners to "leaders" of the country. In early 1 975. they
were among those who made an open petition to boycott the National
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Referendum proposed by the regime for the continuation of the martial law. In
their open petition, they, declared, "As long as the restrictions and prohibitions
of martial law are in force, a referendum on martial law becomes a farce."
A Church-Military Liaison Committee was formed, in the early days of
martial law, to oversee the specific cases of complaints against the military. It
was a concession made by the government due to constant denouncements
and pressures exerted by the clergy. The committee was empowered to serve
as a clearing house for complaints and act as a channel for clarification of
church-military communications and questions on political prisoners. The
agreement between church and military includes a commitment from the
military to inform bishops or religious superiors about clergy arrests, and
whenever possible, to place such arrested priests in the custody of their
superiors with the guaranteed presence of the prisoners whenever needed by
the military. The agreement was not implemented and remained only on paper.
The AMRSP issued a Manifesto on Torture on January 9, 1975, as a result
of repeated reports of torture, which were confirmed. It strongly protests such
practices. The Manifesto declares that:
1. the use of torture of any kind, on any person, for any purpose, is not
justified under any conditions and that it constitutes a serious crime;
2. most tortures are committed during “tactical interrogation”, yet,
technically tactical interrogation is employed only on captured enemy soldiers
in time of war for the purpose of adopting immediate tactical maneuvers. But
the Philippines is not in a state of war, and the arrested suspects are Filipinos,
“our very own blood brothers.”
The Manifesto further denounced the little evidence of the national
leadership to really do its sincere best to put a stop to the torture and
maltreatment of detainees. It warned the government that if the practices
continue, “despite all appeals, the Committee shall elevate the matter to
international bodies such as the United Nations, the World Courts and the
Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace.”
X. FR. ED DE LA TORRE
Fr. Ed de la Torre, a 31 -year old priest with the Society of the Divine Word
was a chaplain for the Federation of Free Farmers in the early 60’s. Later, he
disavowed reformism and developed a politico-theological radicalism. In the
pre-martial law period, he spoke of shedding one’s theological/academic
baggage in order to start anew and serve others, rather than oneself. He
knew the dilemma of the middle class Christians who are limited to “flirting” with
radical option because they pine for perfect situations and perfect solutions
which exist only in minds of political virgins. He also stressed that love of
neighbor must be efficacious, the greatest good for the greatest number. Not
the other-worldly slaves of liturgy, or the professional do-goodism of charity but
bread here and now and the power to change the present and shape the future.
Chronology of arrest and detention
December 13, 1974 - At 1:15 in the afternoon, Fr. Ed was arrested, by men in
civilian clothes at the Luisa and Son restaurant in Manila. He was keeping an
appointment which had been requested of him by note. He was then taken to
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Camp Crame, Manila for several hours, and then to Camp Olivas,
Pampanga the same day. He was charged along with 29 persons with “illegal
printing, possession, distribution, circulation of subversive materials.”
December 14, 1974 — At 11:30 a.m., Fr. Restituto Lumanlan, the highest
acting superior of the SVD’s available in Manila at the time, was handed a xerox
copy of a Memorandum to the Chief of the Constabulary, Camp Crame, with
the authorization of the President, to arrest Fr. Edicio de la Torre “for acts
inimical to national security and public order.” Fr. Lumanlan objected that Fr.
Ed de la Torre’s arrest was in violation of prior agreements between the
government and the Church-Military Liaison Committee which provides that the
religious superiors be first informed of an impending arrest.
December 15, 1974 - 2:30 p.m., the military chaplain returned to Fr.
Lumanlan with a Memo, this time for the arrest of another priest, Fr. Manuel
Lahoz. Fr. Lumanlan then asked the military chaplain where Fr. Ed was. He
said he wasn't sure but would check if he was already in Camp Olivas.
Pampanga.
December 16, 1974 - At 9:00 a.m., not being able to get any further
information, Fr. Lumanlan finally drove to Pampanga to check for himself the
whereabouts of Fr. Ed. When Fr. Lumanlan was allowed to go into the detention
cell, he found Fr. Ed and Fr. Manny Lahoz eating. He also noticed a large bruise
and a bad contusion on the neck of Fr. Ed. Fr. Ed explained that this was a
result of the manhandling at the time of his arrest. Fr. Ed continued that on
December 1 5, a military visitor barged into Fr. Ed's cell shouting, "You. You say
you are a priest. You are fooling us," and with that the military person hit Fr. Ed
in the abdomen with a heavy fist blow. In his surprise and unexpected pain, Fr.
Ed cried out, "My God" and then called for help. The man hit him once more on
the nape and answered, "You still believe in God pala. We thought you were a
member of the Communist Party." Fr. Ed was then handcuffed to his bed.
December 26, 1 974 - More specifically in his letter to all concerned, and on
the 36th hour of his fast, he clarified the reasons for this hunger strike:
1. "It is not primarily to protest the "symbolic" blows I have received. It is
not even to protest Fr. Lahoz' and my own prolonged detention without
investigation although these are reasons enough for a protest. Despite the
relatively privileged treatment we have received (separate quarters,
visitors, food) detention is still imprisonment and freedom remains wanting.
A comfortable cage is still a cage.
2. The primary reason is to focus attention on the other political prisoners
who are not as well known and who are not treated as well. For
snatches of conversation, we have gathered that there is not much sign
of torture in Z-2 itself, although cases worse than what happened to me
have happened. However, during arrest and “tactical interrogation,”
severe torture has been reported and we have seen some of the
results.
3. Another reason is to share with the poor, the starving, the malnourished,
especially laid off workers, sugar workers, "squatters" and share tenants -
the experience of hunger and poverty."
December 27, 1 974 - On the 72nd hour of his fast, Fr. Ed exposed excerpts
of notes from recent prisoners.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
"For nine continuous hours last December 16, I was tortured at M-2. They
badly hit my shoulders with hard wqod, a .45, and iron fists. My chest was badly
damaged by hard fists and pistol blows. My lower ribs were nearly broken. My
groin and testicles and lower stomach were also badly hurt. They hit my back
which nearly damaged my spine. They beat my head and burnt my ears with
cigarettes. These were their answers to all my denials.
"All of us here received the same treatment. They burnt our bodies with a
hot flat iron; they applied electric shocks to all parts of the body.
"They asked my wife to undress, mashed her entire body, inserted their
fingers into her lower sexual organ, and put a lighted cigarette on it. Her
screams saved her from possible rape by the military men. One got his rib
broken, many lost their sense of hearing, bodies, marked with cigarette butts.
Others received electric - shock in their penis, resulting in bleeding.
Fr. Ed also expressed that the protest fast was aimed at influencing medical
investigation to be conducted on other detention camps like 5th CSU and
ISAFP (Camp Crame), Fort Bonifacio (YRC, IRC, and MSU) and the provincial
prisons where most reports of atrocities come from, especially MIG Baguio.
Lastly, Fr. Ed asked for the support of all. Fr. Ed has already told his
interrogators that it is “a genuinely free and democratic Philippines” that he has
lived for and that he hopes he is ready to die for. For him, freedom means not
just the release of detainees, but the liberation of thousands of sugar workers
who work and slave for $2.50 a day, and die “natural” deaths at the
age of 45. Freedom means deliverance from the scourge of death which claims
78% of children of sugar workers before they reach the age of three. This protest
fast by Fr. Ed de la Torre and Fr. Manny Lahoz spurred superiors and members
of 35 congregations to join in a community sympathy fast on December 24,
1974 to protest the torture and indefinite detention of political prisoners. Twenty
Catholic students in Hong Kong also fasted for 24 hours on December 30 for
the same purpose.
Msgr. Jaime Sin likewise wrote a letter of concern to the PC (Philippine
Constabulary) Chief Fidel Ramos suggesting that the alleged cases of torture
be investigated (the amount of reports brought to his attention by clergy
members who were in touch with the detainees was rather persistent and very
disturbing). He submitted*that the investigating body be made up of
government military representatives and a group of doctors, a nurse and lawyer
representing the church.
In the last Church-Military Liaison Committee (CM LC) meeting held last
January 6, 1975, the military apologized for "isolated excesses" committed
during "tactical interrogation." Nonetheless, non-military personnel were denied
entry into prison camps to conduct independent investigation on the torture of
political prisoners who are still imprisoned either without cause or because of
their sincere convictions.
XI. REV. CESAR TAGUBA
Rev. Cesar Taguba who graduated from Silliman Divinity School is a
minister of the United Church of Christ.
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On February 24, 1974, he was arrested and detained at Fort Bonifacio
without formal charges. For three days, he was denied food and water. During
his interrogation he was savagely beaten and made to drink his urine in the
hope of forcing a confession from him. The military authorities also gave him
constant serum injections and electric shock treatment to various parts of his
body. Rev. Taguba was subjected to so severe abuses and torture that he
required hospitalization at the V. Luna Medical Center.
As of January, 1975, Rev. Taguba was in his tenth month of detention
despite a military circular assuring the release of the religious to their immediate
superiors. Reports claim that because of this inhumane ordeal. Rev. Taguba is
suffering from a case of schizophrenia.
On January 8, 1975, an Ecumenical Worship on Fluman Rights was held in
Manila on behalf of all Filipinos who have suffered under the martial law
repression. Sponsored by the NCCP Ecumenical Ministry to Political
Detainees, the service cited Rev. Taguba along with many others who suffered
torture and martyrdom in the hands of the military.
XII. REV. PAUL WILSON
Rev. Paul Wilson is a minister of the Christian Church. He served as a
consultant for the Commission on Development and Social Concerns for the
NCCP (National Council of Churches in the Philippines). He assisted in
promoting cooperatives and credit unions among the churches and private
sectors in the Philippines. Arriving in Manila in September 1973, he was to
serve a “two-year term” in cooperation with the Philippine Government’s
Department of Local Government and Community Development.
Facts about arrest, charges and detention
On June 26, 1 974, officers of the Philippine military forces barged in during
a dinner at the Wilson's residence and arrested Rev. Paul Wilson together with
all the men present. They were all taken to Camp Crame in the Manila Area
where they were interrogated and held "incommunicado" for four days. Later
that night, the military forces came back and arrested Wilson's wife and their
ten-year-old son. Their home and jeep were searched five times in their
absence Their books, magazines, private pictures and about $1 000 in personal
property and cash were stolen by military personnel from their home. For ten
days, Rev. Paul Wilson was imprisoned at one of the detention centers at Camp
Crame. The last four days of his stay In the Philippines, he was held by the
Department of Immigration and Deportation and deported back to the U.S. of!
July 12, 1974.
Bits of Information
During his interview at the Dirksen Senate Building on December 9, 1974,
Rev. Paul Wilson described the conditions of the detention center as
deplorable.
For the first four nights, we were made to sleep on bare concrete floors.
Food consisted of rice, thin soup and coffee. Once or twice a week, we would
get a small piece of fish. For the 200 political prisoners, four toilets and four
showers were shared among themselves. I brushed my teeth over the urinal
and it was not uncommon to wade through 3-4 inches deep of water in the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
bathroom. I slept in the same cell with a Filipino who had tuberculosis in its
active and advanced stages. One prisoner was finally given medical attention
when heard coughing up blood.
Rev. Wilson further related that all 200 political prisoners in that detention
center were waiting for their cases to be investigated. Many of them have
waited for over two years. More than that, he witnessed physical abuse and
torture of these prisoners. In his own words, he described the tortures in the
following:
I heard late at night the screams and cries of grown men and women. I saw
the lacerations on the legs of my Filipino friends who had been beaten with a
steel bar. I saw and felt the bruises and welts on the bodies of young men
whose only crime was that the military was looking for their sister. One NCCP
secretary had a complete mental breakdown while in prison. From her
conversations with my wife after her interrogation, I believe she was raped or
otherwise sexually assaulted. Such techniques as rape, making women sit
nude on cases of ice, using drug addiction and electrical shocks are
commonplace. My wife was told that one Filipina died of multiple rape the week
prior to our arrest. One NCCP clergy person, arrested prior to our arrests, was
tortured to the point where he required 28 days in the hospital to recover. At
one point in his interrogation, officers placed a .45 caliber gun on the table in
front of him and told him that he might as well kill himself because they were
going to kill him anyway. The minister took the gun, placed it against his head
and pulled the trigger. The gun was empty.
These tortures, while blanketly applied on Filipino political prisoners
suspected of any crime, are discriminately applied on clergy and on foreigners.
“We were not mistreated because we were Americans,” Rev. Wilson
commented.
Before any person is released from prison in the Philippines, he must
pledge support to the present government and agree not to talk to any domestic
or foreign media representatives. Rev. Wilson’s wife, released on July 26,1 974
was forced to sign such a pledge over the protests of a representative of the
U.S. Embassy who was with her. Throughout the period of time they were
interrogated and detained, they did not have access to any legal counsel or due
process. The emotional and mental torture was so enormous that Rev. Wilson
lost 10 lbs. in 16 days.
In conclusion, Rev. Wilson said, "These are the realities of some 16,000
political prisoners in the Philippines, today." He likewise drew attention to the
climate of fear predominating in the Philippines.
XIII. FR. JOSE REYES NACU
Father Jose R. Nacu studied philosophy and theology at the La Salette
Seminary in Attleboro, Massachusetts and was ordained in 1957 when he was
24 years old as the first Filipino member of the La Salette Order in Isabela. He
had been head of the La Salette Academy and the order's director for
recruitment and admission.
Fr. Nacu was active in community work among the poor in Hillcrest, Quezon
City. He was well-known for his work in the "Mga Kaibigan ng Zoto" (Friends of
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Zoto), a support group of Zona One Tondo Organization. He integrated with
Tondo's urban poor before martial law and helped them resist persecution.
He was arrested and imprisoned on January 29, 1973 following the "Misa
ng Kalayaan" (Freedom Mass) at the Binondo Church in Manila. He was then
detained without charges at Fort Bonifacio, "despite the inquiries of religious
superiors, confreres, family and friends."
On June 4, Fr. Nacu escaped from his military guard, while out on a pass
to visit his ailing father. He proceeded to the French Embassy and formally
requested for asylum but was refused. His escape was apparently planned in
advance since representatives of the International Press, among them the
Associated Press Manila bureau head were informed and arrived there on time
for an interview. The foreign correspondents were given a prepared statement
by Fr. Nacu, together with a biodata sheet. The signed statement reads in full:
"Today, I, Fr. Jose R. Nacu, have sought political asylum in France. I am
disappointed that a country whose history reflects a triumphant fight for
'equality, liberty and fraternity' failed to give me refuge from persecution, I have
been deprived of civil and political rights. No charges were ever brought against
me despite the inquiries of my religious superiors, confreres, family and friends.
My escape from Ipil Detention Center in Fort Bonifacio is an act of defiance
against the martial law administration. As a Filipino and a priest. 1 cannot, in
conscience swallow violence and deception the present dictatorship brings to
the Filipino people. The Filipino people will not remain oppressed forever. I
remain united with them in active hope for freedom and justice in our land."
Before leaving the embassy grounds, he told Manila-based foreign
correspondents that he was joining the anti-dictatorship forces underground.
XIV. OPPOSITION POLITICAL LEADERS
Marcos’ jails are inhabited not only by student activists, workers, peasants,
and socially conscious clergy; inside his jails are also ex-senators, ex-
congressmen, and long standing political foes. Before martial law, there was
an unprecedented high in the political opposition to the Marcos government. In
Congress and in the Senate, the Marcos government was daily lambasted for
graft and corruption. Accusations of government misspending and abuse of
power were hurled at Marcos by members of the Liberal Party, the opposition
political party. Even more surprising was the fact that even within his own
party, the Nacionalista Party, Marcos was increasingly becoming isolated.
Scandals like the bribing of Constitutional Convention delegates by Mrs.
Marcos rocked the Marcos government. As a result, Marcos’ popularity was at
its lowest ebb during his term in office.
XV. SEN. BENIGNO AQUINO
Benigno S. Aquino, former senator from Tarlac Province and Secretary-
General of the defunct Liberal Party, was one of the main political critics of
President Marcos’ policies in the pre-martial law days. He was also regarded
as a major presidential candidate in the national elections that were to have
been held in November, 1973. With the declaration of martial law, all elections
were suspended.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Facts about arrest, charges and detention
Aquino, Jr. was arrested at the Manila Hilton on September 23, 1972, the
day Philippine President Marcos declared martial law. He was placed under
maximum security at Fort Bonifacio, Makati. No formal charges were made
against him at the time although the government alleged that he had generally
been involved with "subversive" activities. Nearly a year later on August 27,
1973, Aquino was formally arraigned on charges of murder, illegal possession
of firearms, and subversion by a military tribunal. Aquino, in an unexpected
move, refused to participate in the trial calling it "an unconscionable mockery".
In his statement before the tribunals, Aquino said, "Some people suggest that
I beg for mercy. But this I cannot in conscience do. I would rather die on my
feet with honor than live on bended knees in shame."
The following day, President Marcos announced he would create a five-
man committee to reinvestigate the charges against Aquino. According to
Marcos, the committee was meant to demonstrate that everything is being done
"to insure utmost fairness, impartiality and objectivity." However prominent,
former jurists asked by Marcos to sit in the investigative body declined to
participate. Former Senator Lorenzo M. Tanada, Aquino's lawyer, also declined
to participate stating that the new agency "did not conform with the
requirements of due process" because of existing agencies, specifically civilian
courts, to which cases such as Aquino could be reversed.
Aquino filed a petition with the Philippine Supreme Court requesting an
injunction against the military trial on grounds that he was being deprived of his
constitutional right to a hearing in a civilian court. In the absence of a state of
war, Aquino claimed that the military courts had no jurisdiction over civilians.
Aquino also claimed that he did not have "a ghost of a chance” in a trial by a
military court created by President Marcos who. he said, had already prejudged
his guilt.
Conditions under detention
As of April, 1 975, Aquino has spent 30 months in detention under maximum
security of which 24 months was in solitary confinement. In the first eleven
months of detention, Aquino was 45 pounds lighter than his 190 figure.
Appearing pallid before the military tribunal, some newsmen almost did not
recognize him.
Aquino along with former Senator Jose Diokno were at one time subjected
to physical and mental torture at a dungeon-like structure at Fort Maysaysay in
Central Luzon, where they were detained separately. Aquino has at various
times been denied visitation rights by his family and access to counsel. On April
4, 1975, Aquino began a hunger strike in protest against the martial law
government after the military court has ruled that he could not absent himself
from the court proceedings. On April 8, the Philippine Supreme Court issued
an order temporarily restraining the military commission from proceeding with
the case. This was the first time since the imposition of martial law that a civilian
court had restrained a military commission.
Aquino's plan to stage a hunger strike in protest of the government's
charges against him were announced by his wife Mrs. Corazon Aquino in a
press conference at their residence in Quezon City. According to Mrs. Aquino,
the Senator specifically wants to take up with Marcos' four issues:
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
1) the trial of civilians before military tribunals for alleged offenses
committed prior to the proclamation of martial law;
2) the lack of judicial independence;
3) the absence of a genuine free press; and
4) the repression and further continuation of martial law.
Aquino declared he would go on the hunger strike "not only for myself but also
for the many other victims of today's oppression and injustices."
Perpetuation of witness testimony
The prosecution in the Aquino case filed a petition to "perpetuate the
testimony" of their witnesses. The justification for this petition was that the lives
of the witnesses against Aquino were allegedly in danger. The petition was
granted without 1) Aquino knowing of its existence, and 2) without any
opportunity to contest the petition. Further, the defendant was not given any
opportunity to contest the testimony of these witnesses. The military
commission in effect, has in its possession testimony and evidence, the validity
of which cannot be questioned by Aquino in the current proceedings or in
civilian court. Once the military commission has perpetuated the testimony of
the witnesses, they will no longer be subject to recall in civilian court.
According to Aquino, the unseeming haste in holding these proceedings
has deprived me of all the basic guarantees of due process and fair play, basic
guarantees enjoyed by every accused in criminal cases before civilian courts.”
According to another report from Manila, President Marcos will consider the
advisability of transferring the case of Senator Aquino to a civil court as soon
as the so-called “perpetuation” of testimony is finished.
XVI. SEN. JOSE DIOKNO
Jose W. Diokno, 52, former Nacionalista Senator from Batangas, resigned
from the Nacionalista Party and became independent after the suspension of
the writ of habeas corpus in August 1971. Diokno was chairman of the
Movement of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties (MCCCL).
An outspoken critic of President Marcos’ economic and social policies,
Diokno is also a noted advocate of peasant rights and an eloquent speaker in
popular demonstrations and rallies against government corruption.
Facts about arrest, charges and detention
Jose Diokno was arrested in the early morning hours of Sep- tember 23,
1972 (within a few hours after martial law went into effect) and confined in an
isolation cell under maximum security in a military camp outside Manila. No
charges were filed against him. Mrs Carmen Diokno, the senator's wife,
immediately filed a petition for habeas corpus to the Philippine Supreme Court.
Eight months later, charges were still not filed against him and on June 23,
1973, Mrs. Diokno filed a supplemental petition and motion for her husband's
immediate release. Diokno had also previously complained to the court about
such matters as being denied visits by his family and access to counsel. Among
the reasons cited by Diokno's lawyer for his release was his state of health. A
letter from an American physician. Dr. Denton A. Cooley, stated that Diokno
had an operation at the Texas Heart Institute the previous year and the doctor
urged that he be allowed to return to the Institute for further evaluation of a
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
severe case of arteriosclerosis affecting his blood circulation. Mrs. Diokno, in a
letter describing her husband's solitary confinement, said he lost about 25
pounds and had acquired a yellowish pallor.
While in detention, Diokno has suffered from extremely poor health. He has
been taken three times to a hospital in Manila for treatment, under the cover of
darkness.
On August 14, 1973, a motion was filed to hear Diokno's Supplemental
Petition and Motion for Immediate Release. The Philippine Supreme Court
ignored this motion. On December 29, 1973, after more than 450 days of
detention without being charged at all, Diokno withdrew his petition for habeas
corpus from the Philippine Supreme Court.
Relatives and close friends of Diokno said his condition had deteriorated
probably because of the harsh conditions in prison, especially when he and
Senator Aquino were transferred from Fort Bonifacio (near Manila) to Fort
Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija, where they were kept in dungeon-like cells
with almost no ventilation.
Mrs. Diokno stated in an affidavit filed following a visit to her husband, “I
almost failed to recognize him; he looked so much older than his age (52); he
was so thin obviously because he had lost a lot of weight; he had worry lines
all over his face and bags under his eyes; he looked choked and could not
seem to utter a word ..
On September 11,1974, Senator Jose W. Diokno was released from two
years of detention by an act of “executive clemency” on President Marcos’ 57th
birthday. No charges were ever filed, nor was Diokno ever brought to trial during
two years of imprisonment. Since his release, Diokno has remained active in
the legal political opposition defending other political prisoners such as Fr. Ed
de la Torre in military court proceedings. Diokno has also been active in
protesting the inhuman conditions of detention fated by Nilo Tayag.
Easily, the most important political prisoner in the Philippines today is
former Senator Aquino, Jr., the man who should have by now become
President of his country - minus, of course, martial law; minus the "guns, goons
and gold" of candidate Imelda Marcos, if elections had been held in November,
1973.
Two other prominent prisoners are still languishing inside the Marcos jails.
Since their cases are related, I have chosen to treat them in one topical
development. They are Eugenio Lopez, Jr. and Sergio Osmena III, both
arrested in November, 1972. Lopez was the publisher of the Manila Chronicle
and president of the largest radio-television network. His uncle, Fernando
Lopez, was Vice President before martial law, and his father, Don Eugenio
Lopez, Sr., who died in San Francisco on July 6, 1975, held the family's
controlling interest in the nation's largest utility firm, the Manila Electric
Company. Once a Marcos supporter, Lopez, Jr. had been editorially critical of
Marcos prior to martial law. But not nearly consistent in such criticism as
Joaquin "Chino" P. Roces, publisher of the Manila Times had been. Young
Osmena is the son of the 1969 opposition candidate for President (now living
in Los Angeles) and grandson of the first post-war President of the Philippines.
Compared to "Ninoy" Aquino, both young Lopez and Osmena were rather
fortunate in the sense that their respective martial law in the Philippines; the
justice of their cause had been given airing and accorded receptive ears by the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
policymakers and opinion makers in various capitals of the world, especially
Washington, DC. because their parents abroad have had the means and
wherewithal to underwrite the needed legwork. Aquino has been less than lucky
in this sense; world opinion had rallied to save him from persecution only
because the relatives and friends of the Philippines and the outraged
journalists, government officials and friends in the United States and elsewhere
of the No. 1 political prisoner in the Philippines have seen fit to voluntarily take
up Ninoy's cause.
Marcos does not really give a damn about what the Filipinos in the
Philippines think, say or do about his terrible march towards dictatorship. What
rattles him, however, is when the world press and government leaders abroad
publicize the evil things he has done, continues to do and plans on doing. Then,
he really goes into tantrums, and engages rather haphazardly into a cosmetic
program to hide the ugly face of his martial regime. And, as far as he is
concerned, the actions and pronouncements of world leaders and
newspapermen on the prominent political prisoners, Aquino, Lopez and
Osmena, are matters that should be dealt with decisively with fabricated stories
on the reasons for the continued detention of the political prisoners, reasons
that tax credulity and make anyone despise him as an unmitigated liar.
The cases of Lopez and Osmena have been ably presented to U.S.
government officials by the lawyer of the Lopezes. I have taken the liberty of
drawing excerpts from the report made by the lawyer, Gerald N. Hill.
Lopez, Jr. and Osmena III, were arrested separately without warrant by
Presidential security men on November 27, 1972, and imprisoned at Fort
Bonifacio. Eugenio “Geny” Jr. is the eldest son of Eugenio Lopez, Sr., patriarch
of the Lopez clan, who are the Rockefellers of the Philippines. Geny’s uncle is
Fernando Lopez, former Vice President of the Philippines and President
Marcos’ running mate in 1965 and 1969. Vice President Lopez lost his post
when the Vice Presidency was eliminated. At the time of his arrest, Eugenio
Lopez, Jr. was publisher of the Manila Chronicle, the Philippine'' second-largest
daily newspaper, and president of ABS-CBN, a chain of six television and 21
radio stations. For a year prior to the declaration of martial law, young Lopez,
once a political supporter of Marcos, had become increasingly critical in the
editorial pages of the Chronicle of the authoritarian steps taken by the Marcos
regime. After his arrest the Chronicle was closed down and then its facilities
turned over to a newspaper owned by a Marcos brother-in-law. The media
network was seized by the military and handed to a company owned by a
business associate of the President.
Osmena Ill’s principal claim to fame was that he was his father’s son,
although he had been active in the opposition (Liberal) party. His grandfather
was the first President of the Philippines and accompanied General Douglas
MacArthur in the celebrated landing at Leyte in 1944.
On September 20, 1974, Marcos was interviewed by Edwin Newman, NBC
correspondent, on the Today show. The following exchange took place:
“Newman: Mr. President, is it correct that there is still about5,000 of your
political opponents in prison?
“Marcos: Of course, not. We have just released the last of the detention
prisoners who are not facing criminal charges. If you will note, on my birthday
— that was on September 1 1 this year — I issued a directive to release those
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
against whom no charges have been filed formally in court although there were
charges against them in the investigating bodies. These included the opposition
senator, Senator Diokno, and some others were involved in assassination or
coup d’etat against the govemmment.
On October 3, 1974 in an interview on the Today show by reporter Jim
Hartz of Raul Manglapus, former Philippine Senator and Foreign Secretary,
responded:
“Hartz: He (Marcos) said, too, that there were no political prisoners.
“Manglapus: Well, that, of course, certainly is not true. The fact remains that
there are about 5,000 political prisoners now in the stockades in the Philippines.
And this is not denied by the military authorities whenever they are interviewed
by the Associated Press and other press agencies over there.
On November 7, 1974, the President’s wife, Mrs. Imelda Romualdez
Marcos, announced in Honolulu that “as of November 7, 1974, the Philippine
government is extending amnesty to all Filipino citizens living abroad who may
have committed political acts punishable under Philippine Laws.” They would
be allowed to return “without fear of arrest, prosecution or molestation.” The
offer made no mention of political detainees within the Philippines and was
called a “farce” by several prominent exiles.
At least in partial response to the attention drawn to the plight of political
prisoners by the “hunger strike” of Lopez, Jr. and Osmena III, on December 1 1 ,
1974, President Marcos announced via national Philippine television that he
was ordering the release of 662 political prisoners. Several days later he
added another 454 to the list of those to be released, for a total of 1 ,076. They
were in three Marcos-designated categories: crimes against public order,
common crimes and crimes covered by Presidential Decree No. 95. Each
person released was required to swear allegiance to the government.
Lopez and Osmena were not on the list of those released despite the claim
of a Filipino consular official in New York that they were.
The Lopez-Osmena Hunger Strike
For exactly two years from the time of their incarceration in November,
1972, Lopez, Jr. and Osmena III remained silent. No charges had been officially
presented to them in that time.
The reasons for their continued silence were several. The fathers of both in
the United States had been rumored to be fomenters of assassination attempts
against President Marcos. In addition, both had members of their families still
in the Philippines. They had good reason to believe they were being held as
hostages to insure the silence of their fathers in regard to the martial law
regime. The senior Lopez and Osmena, in fact, kept silent. Further, in the case
of Lopez, his elderly father was under pressure to relinquish family interest in
the media and controlling interest in Meralco Securities Corporation (MSC), the
holding company for the nation's largest utility, Manila Electric Company.
It was also believed by the two prominent prisoners that eventually they
would be released along with most political prisoners if President Marcos could
develop a "face saving" means for ending their detention. They were visited by
representatives of the President who encouraged this belief.
Finally, Lopez, Jr. decided he could remain silent no longer. He determined
to begin a hunger strike "unto death” to protest not only his continued detention
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
but that of the many other political prisoners under martial law. His son, Eugenio
III (an American citizen) telephoned his brother-in-law, businessman Steve
Psinakis (also an American citizen) in San Francisco asking Psinakis to come
to Manila on a matter of "life and death." On November 14, 1974 Psinakis and
Lopez, Jr.'s wife, Conchita. visited the prisoner and were handed copies of his
press statement. The guards seized Mrs. Lopez's copy and returned it only after
making copies. Psinakis left by air for the United States and that afternoon Mrs.
Lopez held an informal press conference announcing her husband's decision
to begin his hunger strike on Monday, November 18, 1974.
The heart of the Lopez statement was as follows:
"I am going on this hunger strike to focus attention on the plight and
suffering of thousands of detainees like me, who have languished in jail for
months and years without even being informed of the charges against them.
This is the only way open to me to obtain justice for all of us.
"I am innocent, but under the circumstances, I cannot expect a fair hearing
either in the military tribunals or in civil courts. I will fast until lam released. If
my plea for justice is not heeded, I am ready to die."
Lopez’ mention of the courts is a reference to two salient facts: In relation
to military courts, all rulings are subject to review and approval of President
Marcos himself; in relation to the civil courts, Marcos has open-dated
resignations of all j udges in his hands. At the same time Lopez sent a personal
letter (via Psinakis) to his parents.
The Lopez hunger strike began the morning of November 18, 1974. Sergio
Osmena III (who, it should be noted, was not a close friend of Lopez’ prior to
imprisonment — their families had consistently been political opponents)
decided to join Lopez and began his hunger strike at 5 p.m. of the same day.
Osmena managed to smuggle out a more detailed statement of his reasons,
which included the continued detention of political prisoners, such aspects of
martial law as crimes by the military, the use of referenda to continue martial
law, the absence of free speech and free press, and the ‘‘absence of
independence” in the judiciary. He quoted the Philippine’s greatest martyr, Jose
Rizal: “There are no tyrants where there are no slaves.” His declaration was
dated November 15, 1974.
On November 20, the prison officials separated Lopez and Osmena and
placed each in isolation. Their wives were not allowed to visit them. There
followed a series of attempts to induce the two men to break their fast. On that
day Osmena's sister, Minnie Osmena Cabarrus, was brought by the military to
Osmena and she asked him to break his fast. He refused. On the 26th a Colonel
Flaminiano visited each prisoner separately and urged each to open
negotiations with President Marcos. He told Lopez for the first time that charges
had been filed against him and told Osmena that his father was negotiating for
his release (there is no evidence this was true.) He urged them to break their
fast in order to allow the government to work out an "honorable exit" from its
embarrassing predicament. Both refused.
On November 27, the Philippine Secretary of National Defense Juan Ponce
Enrile visited Mrs. Lopez and Mrs. Osmena and indicated that terms for ending
the hunger strike could be worked out so that the two men could be released in
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
stages so that they would be completely free in a short time. The Secretary
then allowed the two wives to visit their husbands for the first time.
On the same day Mrs. Lopez told the Secretary of Defense that her
husband's demands included immediate release of many detainees (specifying
many of the most prominent by name), his own release and the right to move
freely, including a visit to his parents in the United States. The Secretary
indicated that the release of detainees was agreeable, but that the release of
Lopez and Osmena would have to be on a step-to-step basis. Mrs. Lopez asked
that the second part of the agreement - relating directly to her husband - be put
in writing, and this was done (Enrile letter to Lopez, dated November 28, 1 974).
Later that day a meeting of Secretary Enrile with the wives ot Lopez and
Osmena, several military people and two attorneys for Lopez and Osmena,
former Senators Lorenzo M. Tanada and Jose W. Diokno (who had been a
detainee himself) was held.
The events at this meeting are described in a letter dated January 11,1 975
from the two attorneys to Secretary of Defense Enrile. There are agreements
for release of many detainees, the non-pursuance of charges — whether or not
any formally existed — against the two, and a series of steps toward full
freedom by the end of January, 1975, was agreed upon. TheSecretary also
asked that the wives issue a press release upon the breaking of the fast if Lopez
and Osmena agreed.
That night Lopez and Osmena were visited by their wives and presented
with what appeared to be a nearly-complete victory. The only term which had
not been fully met was for their own immediate release. They ended their
hunger strike and the wives issued the following press release:
Our husbands have asked us to announce that on Thursday, November
28,1 974, at 7:00 p.m. they broke their fast because they believe that they have
achieved their objective of focusing the attention of the government and the
people on their plight and that of other detainees in a position like theirs.
They believe also that the government is sincere in taking the necessary
steps to correct the problems that have been focused upon. They have been
assured that the government has taken positive measures and they would like
to afford the government an opportunity to continue to take the necessary steps
to correct these problems.
It should be noted that the Marcos government was at that point under
increasing pressure due to the hunger strike. Its diplomatic representatives
were receiving persistent requests for information from American
Congressmen. The strike was the subject of reports in the American and
European press. On November 22, Catholic Archbishop Jaime Sin of Manila
attacked various aspects of martial law, voicing the comment: "We cannot jail
a man indefinitely and still call ourselves Christian." (Washington Post,
November 23, 1974) Masses dedicated to Lopez and Osmena were held in
several churches. In a nation 80 per cent Catholic this was particularly
significant.
Lopez and Osmena, both weak but clear-headed, were transferred under
guard to the Veterans Memorial Hospital, supposedly to regain their strength
before being allowed at least partial parole to rheir homes. They are still there.
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In only one respect has the Marcos government even come close to
keeping its word to Lopez and Osmena. Commencing December 11, the
release of more than a thousand detainees began.
The government-controlled press (in a neatly orchestrated piece of
counterpoint) published on December 1 not only the press releases of
Mesdames Lopez, and Osmena, but a full-blown story of alleged charges
against Lopez and Osmena. It claimed the two were deeply involved in an
assassination plot against the President.' The stories were stepped up the next
day. Secretary Enrile assured the two prisoners this was just a face-saving
"parting shot" by the government.
On December 4, 1974. President Marcos announced that Lopez and
Osmena would be tried by a civil court as perpetrators of a common crime (i.e.
attempted assassination), and would be allowed house arrest to prepare their
defense.
On December 11,1974, as part of a lengthy television address, President
Marcos stated that Lopez and Osmena broke their hunger strike when
presented with evidence against them and announced them guilty of abetting
an assassination plot. At the same time he denied amnesty to Osmena’s father,
Senator Sergio Osmena, Jr. on the basis that he was the “mastermind” of the
alleged plot to kill the President in the summer of 1972.
The same day the junior Lopez and Osmena issued a statement from the
hospital accepting the challenge to stand trial on the following conditions:
1 . Restoration of press freedom to allow uncensored trial coverage;
2. Restoration of the right to bail to allow freedom to prepare defense;
3. Make the tenure of all judges no longer subject to open-date
resignations;
4. Restoration of writ of habeas corpus.
To date no trial has been set and the two prisoners have been denied the
right to see their attorneys, Diokno and Tanada.
The response to inquiries to the Philippine government has drawn two
responses: (1 ) that the two prisoners are clearly guilty, and (2) the two prisoners
have been released under some form of house arrest to prepare their defense.
Neither is true.
Charges Against Lopez and Osmena
The first time Lopez, Jr. and Osmena III were told there were formal
charges against them was on the ninth day of their hunger strike. They were
shown a document which states in effect that they were charged with attempted
assassination of the President, and were told that the charges had been filed
in August, 1973, more than a year previous.
In December, 1972, the Philippine government indicated to the press that
assassination had been masterminded by the senior Lopez (then in San
Francisco) and that the information had come to the President through a report
by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation. This was given to a reporter
for the Washington Star-News, and published widely in the United States in
December, 1972. On March 28,1973, attorney Gerald N. Hill of San Francisco
wrote to Attorney General Richard M. Kleindienst on behalf of Lopez, Sr. asking
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
if such a report actually existed. On April 13,1973, L. Patrick Gray III,
Acting Director of the FBI responded, stating that “the FBI has conducted no
investigation concerning your client, Eugenio Lopez, Sr.”
President Marcos stated the charges against Lopez, Jr. and young
Osmena in his television address, December 11, 1974, accusing them of
financing six unsuccessful assassination attempts.
In addition, the Marcos government has released two lengthy statements
reportedly detailing the evidence, published December 1, 1974. The first is
claimed to be the written “confession” of Osmena III. In essence, it tends to
implicate his father, then Mayor of Cebu, in the plot. It does not mention
Eugenio Lopez, Jr. or any Lopez at all.
Osmena has called the statement a fraud. No signed copy is available.
Nevertheless, President Marcos referred to a “confession” in his December 11
speech.
The “evidence” against Eugenio Lopez, Jr. was an alleged written
statement of an unidentified “suspected participant” released to the press the
same day. It depicts a ludicrous series of missed attempts on the President’s
life perpetrated by the writer of the statement and a handful of confederates.
He names the older Osmena as the mastermind and places Sergio
Osmena III and Eugenio Lopez, Jr. together with Mayor Osmena on several
occasions. It finally contends that Lopez, Jr. provided some expense money
and recommended that they should get an American “hit man.” Lopez flatly
denies he ever heard of these men or had any involvement.
This story is sketchy and disconnected. It falls apart on at least one point
alone: it shows Lopez, Jr. and the elder Osmena, old political opponents and
scarcely friends, working together and talking openly in front of strangers. Also
fatal to the validity of the statements is the placement of the elder Osmena at
the heart of the “conspiracy” in February, 1972, at a time when he was still
disabled from a hand grenade explosion on August 21 , 1 971 (at a Liberal party
rally) which nearly took his life. The government has revealed no corroboration
for this narrative.
Right to Counsel Denied
The Philippine government has repeatedly responded to inquiries as to the
condition of Lopez, Jr. and Osmena III that they are permitted home visits while
preparing their defense.
The fact is that not only have they not been able to visit their homes, but
have been denied the rightto consult their counsels, Senators Tanada and
Diokno, noted Philippine attorneys. Tanada and Diokno complained of this in
their letter to Secretary of National Defense Enrile.
Further, the only information as to the charges allegedly filed in August,
1 973, is a charge sheet shown to the two on the ninth day of their hunger strike.
No evidence has been given them and no steps have been taken to move the
matter toward trial.
Misinformation Given to American Congress and State Department
Several Senators and members of the House took a particular interest in
the case as a result of the efforts of Steve and Presy Lopez Psinakis. In
addition. Mayor Joseph L. Alioto, a friend of Eugenio Lopez, Sr., lodged an
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
injury. A sampling of letters is attached as Exhibits Z through FF of those sent
by Senators Alan Cranston, John V. Tunney, James Abourezk, Hubert H.
Humphrey, Birch Bayh, Henry M. Jackson, J. Glenn Beall, Harrison A. Williams,
Jr., Edward Gurney, Hugh Scott, Edward M. Kennedy, Mark Hatfield and
Herman E. Talmadge, Representatives Phillip Burton and Don Edwards, and
Mayor Alioto.
Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs replied to an inquiry by -
Congressman Burton, in which he contends there is "incontestable" evidence
and "admissions of guilt". The first is an opinion but the "admissions of guilt" is
an outright untruth.
In his reply to Senator Gurney Philippine Ambassador Eduardo Z.
Romualdez, a relative of Mrs. Marcos, states that President Marcos was
inclined to grant the prisoners relief on the basis that a "Legal Study Group has
recommended that the said persons are qualified for amnesty." The letter was
dated December 6 and on December 1 1 Marcos announced that he would not.
The Ambassador goes on to state that no commitment was made by
government authorities in return for breaking their hunger strike. This is stated
in the teeth of Defense Secretary Enrile's letter to Lopez on November 28.
The letter of Congressman Edwards to President Marcos dated December
10, 1974, drew no reply.
On the other hand, Senator Birch Bayh, in response to his persistent inquiry
to the Philippine Embassy in Washington, received a personal visit from
Ambassador Romualdez on December 3, 1974. Senator Bayh (see page
S20548 of the proceedings of December 4, 1974) reported that the
Ambassador indicated that President Marcos "over the coming weekend" would
take steps to ameliorate the situation in regard to Lopez, Osmena and other
political prisoners, without being "in the position of the United States telling
them what to do." If is not without significance that this visit came during a
debate on the bill to extend military assistance to foreign nations and
specifically extend military assistance to foreign nations and specifically on the
amendment to deny aid to nations with repressive regimes.
Senator Cranston followed Senator Bayh's remarks thusly: "I fully share the
Senator's concern. If reforms do not occur in the Philippines, I will join with the
Senator in an effort to end military aid to that government. Our aid should not
be used to repress the Filipino people."
Queries directed to the State Department were usually answered by
Linwood Holton, Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations, David C.
Cuthell, Director, Office of Philippine Affairs, or Elmer C. Hulen, Deputy Director
of that office. It must be assumed that direct statements of fact as to Philip-
pine policy come to Mr. Holton, Mr. Cuthell or Mr. Hulen from Philippine officials.
In his reply to Congressman Burton Holton states: “We understand the
Philippine government intends to bring their cases to a speedy resolution.” That
was as of November 23, 1974.
On December 3, 1 974, Cuthell answered Mayor Alioto in an identical letter,
the text of which was repeated in several responses.
On December 18, 1974, Holton replied to Senator Jackson adding the
report that Lopez and Osmena “were apparently suspected by the Philippine
government of involvement in a plot to assassinate President Marcos.”
On December. 1 7, 1 974, Holton replied to Senator Williams with the added
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
report that Lopez and Osmena would have “privileges to visit their homes while
they are preparing for their defense.” This allegation was contained in several
State Department responses to members of Congress. As indicated elsewhere
there are no home visit privileges and no opportunity to meet with attorneys to
prepare a defense.
Holton, however, on December 19,1974, wrote another letter to Senator
Williams which details American concern for violations of human rights and
noted that the Philippines has been “specifically apprised of the text and import
of Section 32 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1973.”
Holton again wrote to Senator Williams on January 9,1975 in effect
admitting that he had been misled as to the right to prepare a defense and the
anticipated speedy conclusion. He stated: “No date has yet been set for the trial
and we understand that their lawyers have not recently been permitted to see
them.” The word “recently” is misleading — their lawyers have never been
allowed to meet with Lopez and Osmena.
On January 10, 1975, Congressman Edwards wrote to Ambassador
Romualdez in the same tenor as his earlier letter to President Marcos. No
answer has been forthcoming.
On January 9, 1975, Senator Abourezk received a response from the
Philippine Embassy, which said Lopez would be tried in a civilian court and had
been released to a hospital with a privilege to visit his home. The term “to visit”
was misleading. By telephone, Defense Secretary Enrile offered the prisoners
a 24-hour pass on December 17,1974. This offer was passed up by the still-
recuperating prisoners since they had been promised house arrest by
December 22 as the second stage of their eventual freedom in January.
The Philippine government has not only misled the American Congress and
State Department, but has disseminated false statements on this matter to the
general public.
The false statement of the Philippine information office as to home visits
has already been documented.
On December 24, 1 974, a letter dated December 1 6,1 974 appeared in the
New York Times signed by one A.D. del Rosario, Press and Information Officer,
Consulate General of the Philippines. The language in regard to delay of trial is
virtually identical to that of Secretary Romulo’s telegram to Congressman
Burton on November 25. Del Rosario added a new element, by claiming for the
first time that there were “confessions” (plural) of the accused. Previously, the
Philippine government had only claimed a confession by Osmena III. In
addition, Del Rosario goes on to say:
"Despite the gravity of the charges against Lopez and Osmena III, President
Marcos ordered their release under house arrest so that they could be with their
respective families during the Christmas season. The two, who ended on the
11th day their hunger strike "to death," were among the 1,076 detainees
released by the Government last week under the President's policy of national
reconciliation, solidarity and brotherhood announced last December 11,1 974."
There is not a single word of truth in that statement.
The Latest Marcos Terms
Marcos on January 24, 1 975, sent word to former Vice President Fernando
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Lopez that he would like to see him the next morning, the 25th at 9:00 a.m.
Fernando, accompanied by Oscar Lopez, younger brother of Eugenio Lopez,
Jr. met with the President the next morning. It was a pleasant meeting in which
Marcos offered to release Eugenio Lopez, Jr. with only one guard in front of his
house. Furthermore, Chit Lopez would be allowed to visit her father-in-law in
the United States. In return, the President wanted a letter signed by Lopez, Jr.
and Fernando requesting the release of Eugenio Lopez, Jr.
A second meeting to iron out the details was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. the
next day. Fernando Lopez, along with Oscar and Manuel Lopez (brothers of
Eugenio Lopez, Jr.) came to the Presidential Palace the next day and were kept
waiting for almost two hours. When the President appeared he presented
Fernando Lopez with a prepared letter he wanted Fernando and Eugenio, Jr.
to sign.
Fernando Lopez was tempted to sign the letter, but on close examination it
did not include any terms or agreement as to release of Eugenio Lopez, Jr.
Secondly, it implied an admission of some degree of guilt. Furthermore, it
accepted the confiscation of Lopez properties. When shown the text, Eugenio
Lopez, Jr. rejected it for these reasons. In addition, he objected to the
unqualified endorsement of Marcos’ “New Society” (martial law). The Lopezes
did not object to the language of personal thanks to the President.
The depths of depravity into which the Marcos military regime has
submerged itself can be fathomed by delving into the varied and varying
political, economic, social and family circumstances of the persons ordered
detained by Marcos. For they are persons in whom or on whose particular
circumstance President Marcos and his daringly ambitious wife, Imelda. have
specific selfish interests, either personally or in indirect representation of the
lesser lights in the ruling clique.
Not every man or woman languishing, or now marked or may still be
marked for incarceration, in any of the jails or concentration camps of the
martial regime is a prisoner of conscience. There are any number of reasons
and considerations for the detention, mostly without warrant and without
charges, of thousands of Filipinos in the jails of Marcos. They are either political,
economic, social or plain personal enemies of the members of the ruling clique.
But there is one common denominator that, in view of Marcos, binds all the
political prisoners he has jailed and/or continue to hold in jails; it is, that,
together and acting in concert, they pose a threat to his establishment of an
imperial dynasty in the Philippines. Thus, never again should they be able to
resume their premartial rule roles of opponents of Marcos by reason of their
political, economic, social, or family connections. That is why the crackdown by
Marcos upon the imposition of martial law that was sweeping and brutal, if
slowly done under the false facade of a smiling martial law.
Thus, it was in the case of the Lopezes. The original decision of the ruling
duumvirate of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos was simply to destroy the Lopezes
as “king makers” and to obliterate from the public mind the unhappy memory
that the ingrates Ferdinand and Imelda turned against their No. 1 politi-
cal benefactor, Don Eugenio Lopez, Sr., after gaining wings on their own.
Greed followed the desire to destroy, and at that stage, Marcos let loose his
front men to acquire the Lopez assets; Kokoy Romualdez, of theMeralco and
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Chronicle printing plant, and Benedicto, of the vast radio-TV complex, known
as the Broadcast Center, the radio-telecasting compound for the national
stations of the Alto Broadcasting System, Chronicle Broadcasting Network and
allied radio-TV stations.
Of course, the No. 1 political prisoner, Aquino, isinjailforno other reason
than that he turned out, after the 1965 elections, to be the No. 1 effective and
unyielding critic of Ferdinand and Imelda, but also because, as early as 1970,
he was already being looked up to as the next President of the Philippines after
December 30, 1975. The Filipino people very little realized then that Marcos
had already set the stage for martial law by the seventh year of his reign —
because, among others, he could not afford to suffer the consequences of
being an ex-President in a free society like the Philippines.
There are people who will argue that Marcos could not be that vindictive;
as a matter of fact, they would argue, and with some reason, that Marcos is a
very forgiving man, so that the claim that he ordered the incarceration of
politicians who had opposed him or criticized him at one time or another could
not be the sole reason for the round-up. Of course, Marcos is not a forgiving
man; he has an elephantine memory for what he called injustices committed
against him by his foes and friends alike. But Marcos knows how to bend with
the wind; when a typhoon blows, he would know how to give allowance for
flexibility. Marcos is even willing to swallow crap, if it would suit his personal
and political objectives - as he had so often done in the past and would possibly
do so again the days to come. Witness my own case. On the occasion of my
defection, I called him names and - insulted his family honor and exposed his
ambitions and plans to establish an imperial dynasty in my country. He even
tried to make a spy out of me. But that is not the so-called virtue of the man. It
is political pragmatism; his own idea of personal and political accommodation
to suit the necessities of the moment. It was Marcos' way of trickery and deceit
in order that he can disarm, neutralize or throw off guard his opponents. The
glaring example of this was when he smoked the peace pipe with Vice
President Fernando Lopez and his late brother, Don Eugenio Lopez, shortly
before the imposition of martial law in the Philippines. He assumed the posture
of a man moving for national reconciliation. Marcos swallowed his pride and
went to the Lopez citadel of power, there to eat humble pie. But now, everyone
realizes that it was just a ruse, one of those steps taken by Marcos on the eve
of the imposition of martial law in order to lull his political opponents into a false
sense of security; to create publicly the impression that here was a "lameduck"
President publicly admitting his position of weakness as arrayed against the
vast power and might of "kingmaker" Ining Lopez. The fact that Imelda allowed
Marcos to enter into a "reconciliation" with the Lopezes without even the sign
of a whimper of protest should have sounded ominous to the Lopezes and the
other political opponents of Marcos.*3
(*3. See Chapter on “The Other Villains” on the subject of “balato” which Marcod made out as a
peace offering to Imelda.)
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
If is just possible that they have not taken the warnings of another astute
llocano lawmaker, Congressman Carmclo Z. Barbero.*4
(* 4 . As early as January, 1 966. Congressman Barbero started warning his Liberal Party colleagues,
including Sen. Aquino, that the bible of Marcos was neither the Douay version (Catholic) nor the
King James version (Protestant), but "the book of Satan," so that it was important for the opposition
party to study Marcos' own satanic record and infinite capacity for diabolical cunning to be able to
defeat him in the 1969 elections.)
Marcos made a gesture towards defeated presidential candidate Osmena
on the eve of martial law in much the same manner that he made peace with
the Lopezes, creating the public impression at the time that he had forgiven
Serging for the merciless attacks the Liberal candidate had hurled against
Marcos during the heated 1969 election campaign. As in the case of the
Lopezes, Marcos also cracked down on Serging. Unable to get the man
himself, Marcos held as hostage the eldest son of Serging, Serio "Serge"
Osmena III, for the sins Osmena had committed against Marcos.
This is the reason I have rejected, and will continue to reject, peace feelers
from Marcos, which have been numerous and continue to be made even as I
wind up the writing of the manuscript of this book. The man will exact his
vengeance in his own sweet time on the unsuspecting enemy whom he had
lulled into a false sense of security.
The key figure in all the concocted assassination charges against Geny
Lopez and Serge Osmena is Eduardo Figueras. former Nacionalista mayoralty
candidate in Manila and son of the late Secretary of Labor, Jose Figueras.
Figueras, accused of having plotted with Serging Osmena, Eugenio Lopez, Jr.
and Serge Osmena III. among others, the assassination of Marcos, bringing
allegedly to Manila for this purpose a certain Larry Traetman, is one prisoner
who is not even a common criminal nor a political detainee. I personally know
that he has been tortured by the interrogators of Gen. Ver-Crisologo, the
Commander of the Presidential Security Command. The torture had been
sanctioned not only by Gen. Ver-Crisologo himself, but by both President and
Mrs. Marcos on the personal plea of Mrs. Alita Rornualdez-Martel, sister of Mrs.
Marcos. Even the incarceration of Eddie Figueras was instigated by the
Martels, Rodolfo Martel, husband of Alita. and Antonio Martel, elder brother of
Rodolfo. The facts are simple: Figueras and the Martels entered into several
business transactions, among them the ownership and operation of ocean-
going cargo ship, S.S. DON JOSE FIGUERAS , which Eddie Figueras had
acquired from Japan under the Reparations Agreement. It was a financing
arrangement which required the influence of people close to the Marcoses, and
he brought the Martels into the deal. Sometime in 1969, the cargo vessel
burned and sank about 500 miles from San Francisco. Somehow, Figueras was
able to collect the insurance policy on the ship, and had the entire amount
deposited in his name in a bank abroad, which proved to be his undoing - when
martial law was proclaimed. But the Martels went after him, but he wouldn't
cough up. The ruthless arms of the martial regime did the rest, and now
Figueras tortured still into singing the tune that Marcos wants him to sing.
Not only Marcos and his wife, Imelda are perverting the powers of martial
rule. Members of the armed forces, from the top to the lowest echelon, are
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
using the guns of martial law either to extort money, exact vengeance on
enemies, even up old scores and even serve their immoral desires.
I have seen complaints in the Study Room of the President lodged by
priests and civic leaders protesting the behavior of the military in the provinces,
but what struck me as the most depraved were the claimed abuses being
committed on wives and daughters of political detainees. Going to bed with
officers and soldiers is a price demanded of the wives and daughters for the
privilege of visiting their husbands and/or fathers, respectively, or hastening
their 'processing' preparatory to eventual release. The complaints mentioned
the fact that persons were being arrested and detained because they either
have attractive wives or daughters who have caught the fancy of the local
Constabulary or army commanders, or that release of detainees are
intentionally being delayed to allow the brutal and savage military men to soften
up the object of their lusts. Sometime last vear. an important political prisoner
in the concentration camp operated near the Malacanang golf course suddenly
enjoyed visiting privileges from his socialite sister. It turned out that the privilege
was accorded him through the courtesy of Alfredo "Bejo" Romualdez, youngest
brother of Mrs. Marcos and who holds the rank of commander in the Philippine
Navy. Bejo was suspected of having gained a beachhead on the sister of the
political prisoner and had made subsequent landings. It turned out that Navy
commander Bejo merely secured the beachhead for his commander-in-chief;
and saw to it that the conquered territory was ravished to the full satisfaction of
the boss. Anyway, Bejo was amply rewarded later on with an award of the
BASECOs to his private outfit. Thus, when the socialite kept herself absent
for sometime from the reach of the Navy commander-brother of Mrs. Marcos,
Bejo was forced to demand why the woman had not come back home. The
woman answered: "Hoy, Bejo. I am no longer within the reach of your martial
powers."
(*5. See Chapter on “The Reign of Greed.”)
Perhaps it would require an entire book to chronicle the various evil ways
by which the "arrest and detain" powers now suddenly available to Marcos and
his gang has been perverted. However, this work will be terribly unfair to
historians if I did not dwell briefly on the case of Joaquin "Chino" P. Roces,
publisher of the Manila Times, Sen. Diokno (again), and Congressmen Roque
S. Ablan, (llocos Norte) and Jose M. Alberto (N-Catanduanes). The
circumstances of their arrest and detention vary, and we shall deal with them
briefly.
The falling out between ’Chino" and Marcos carne when in late 1969 the
Manila Times publisher filed in a request that President Marcos give a "special
guest" treatment to a personal friend, author Lin Yu Tang, who had planned on
visiting Manila. Not finding it timely and advisable to entertain one who has
been royally treated some time before by China's Chairman Mao Tse-Tung,
Marcos brusquely rejected the Roces request and thus caused the publisher
no little embarrassment with the Chinese author. Since that time, the Manila
Times assumed a very critical stance against Marcos, encouraging news
stories on expose of graft and corruption in high government offices, tracing
them directly to the Study Room and the Music Room, where the President and
the First Lady, respectively, receive their official callers and conduct official
business, in Malacanang, and giving prominent play ups to stones that were
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
clearly not palatable to the presidential finer sensibilities. As stated in our earlier
chapters, Marcos is not the kind of a man who would meet an enemy head-on.
So he took the "poisoned darts and arrows" thrown his way patiently, if painfully;
for he could bear pain, physical or otherwise, stoically, if he must. In May, 1 972,
when "Chino" was entertaining some friends on the occasion of his birthday
anniversary, the President and the First Lady just barged into the Roces
residence and behaved as if they have received the printed invitation sent out
by Chino to friends earlier. Chino insists up to this day that he never sent the
Marcoses an invitation to the birthday party. And behaving like the Spanish
mestizo that he was, Chino completely ignored the Marcoses who contented
themselves with laughing artificially at the corny jokes of columnist Jose L.
Guevara. This double snub the Marcoses could not forget; Mrs. Marcos was
fuming at the brazen insult dished out to them by the Roces clan. "Lintik lang
ang walang ganti, " Marcos fumed. (There is a time to settle old scores). Such
time came when martial law was proclaimed; the Manila Times publishing
company, which published the Manila Times, a morning daily; the Daily Mirror,
an afternoon daily, and the "Taliba," a Tagalog morning daily, were among the
first to be sealed by Metrocom (Metropolitan Command, PC) troopers in the
early dawn of September 23, 1 972.
Senator Diokno was arrested by a team of Metrocom troopers also in the
early dawn of September 23, 1 972, at his residence along Roxas Boulevard in
Paranaque, Rizal. His crime: Aside from conducting selective criticisms of the
Marcos acts and policies, he had earlier compiled in collaboration with then
Manila Mayor Arsenio H. Lacson documents which would prove that Marcos
was the real murderer of Nalundasan. Diokno compiled the dossier while he
was Secretary of Justice under President Macapagal (1962-1965) in
preparation for Lacson's running as the Nacionalista presidential candidate
against Marcos in the 1965 elections. Metrocom troopers who searched every
nook and cranny of the Diokno residence were under specific instructions to
look for this particular file of documents. When informed that the soldiers could
not find the papers, Marcos ordered a search into the law offices of Diokno on
Ermita and to burn down the law office, if the search should turn fruitless. The
law offices of Diokno, which had some of the best law books in the Philippines,
was razed by a fire of "undetermined origin" three days after the arrest and
detention of the Batangas Senator whose father, Senator and later Justice
Ramon Diokno had criticized his fellow Batangueno, Justice Jose P. Laurel,
Sr., for acquitting Marcos on the Nalundasan murder charge.
The incarceration of Congressmen Ablan and Alberto was the joint
handiwork of Mrs. Marcos and her favorite brother, Gov. Kokoy Romualdez. A
few days after the proclamation of martial law, when President Marcos and his
advisers were scanning the horizon to set up for public consumption examples
of how the so-called "New Society" was dealing with friends and foes alike, Mrs.
Marcos and Kokoy came up with the idea that some "men closely identified with
the President should be placed in the military stockade." "These would prove
our sincerity on the pantay-pantay (equal treatment for all) plank," chorused
Imelda and Kokoy. Who did they have in mind? The president asked, as if to
carry on the joke, with his two very private advisers. The name of Ablan. Jr. and
Alberto came up. "We jail Ablan for those mischiefs he has committed in your
name, and Alberto for being a terrorist in Catanduanes and for having cheated
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
for us in the 1969 elections," intoned Mrs. Marcos. Of course, what was not
articulated was that both Mrs. Marcos and Gov. Romualdez wanted to get even
with Ablan's efforts to serve the personal and romantic needs of his benefactor.
Young Ablan is even suspected of having been with a gang which manhandled
Kokoy and left him for dead in llocos Norte in 1959.
For Alberto, however, there was a different score to settle. As chairman of
the powerful House committee on appropriations, it was within his power to
approve or veto requests for special appropriations in the general
appropriations bill. He had steadfastly refused to approve funding with bloated
outlays the special image-building projects of the First Lady, Mrs. Marcos
considered his an affront. She bided her time, and the time came on September
24, 1972.
Accounts of mass arrests and torture, and abuse of families of political
detainees have appeared in the world press. I have read most of them and find
them to be substantially correct. The conditions in these concentration camps
are generally filthy, although the detention camps known as "A", "B". "C", and
"S" in the Greater Manila area are in Camp Aguinaldo, Camp Bonifacio in
McKirfley, Camp Crame and the Sampaguita Rehabilitation Center in
Muntinlupa, Rizal. I have examined and read two articles on political prisoners,
and I find them accurate accounts of conditions in the Philippines.
The first, entitled "Inside the Marcos Concentration Camps", written by Dr. John
M. Swornley, Jr., professor of social ethics at the St. Paul School of Theology
(United Methodist), Kansas City, Missouri, appeared in the Christian Century,
issue of November 13, 1974; and the second, entitled "Marcos House:
Chambers of Torture", was written under the pen name of Concepcion Aguila
by one still residing in the Philippines and was first printed in the Bulletin of
Concerned Asian Scholars, issue of November-December, 1974.
The Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines compiled
the following list of prisoners subjected to torture and other forms of military
atrocities while in detention:
1. Mr. Reynaldo Guillermo (address: Camp Holmes)-electric shock all over body;
-beating; -tried to escape but was shot at (not hit).
2. Isabel del Pilar (wife of Reynaldo Guillermo); detained. Four months pregnant,
and sick with amebiasis.
3. Alejandro Arellano (address: Taguig, Rizal)-electric shock and beating all over
body.
4. Flora Corpus (wife of Alejandro Arrelano); detained. Two months pregnant
5. Charley Palma (address: Tatalon, Quezon City) -electric shock and beating;
burned with lighted cigarettes.
6. Rosario Salvador (wife of Charley Palma); aged 20; detained
7. Victor Quinto (Baguio City) -electric shock torture and beating; burned with
cigarette butts; truth serum administered.
8. Elita Ponce (wife of Victor Quinto); detained. Two months pregnant.
9. Pedrode Guzman, Jr., aged 25; - electric shock and beat-ing.
1 0. Virginia Atening (Catineng?), aged 22 (wife of Pedro de Guzman, Jr.);detained
11. Reynaldo Rodriguez, aged 23;- electric shock; beating; strangling (sinakal);
burned with cigarette butts.
12. Ma. Cristina Verzola, age 20 (wife of Reynaldo Rodriguez);-beating; burned
with cigarette butts; some sexual abuses.
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13. Julius Giron; - electric shock; burned with cigarette butts; was made to eat a
big chunk of lead and bled from nose because of this; - also suffered ruptured ear
drum and broken ribs.
14. Armando Teng; - electric torture and beating.
15. Arnulfo Resus
16. Ramon Casiplo
17. Santiago Alonzo; - electric shock and other physical torture.
18. Romeo Bayle; - electric shock and beating.
19. Francisco Vergara; - physical torture.
20. Agaton Topacio; - electric shock torture and beating.
21 . Ramon Bayle
22. Reynaldo Mao - A worker arrested last December II, was detained at Camp
Crame and later transferred to Camp Olivas. He was badly beaten up which left
him with bloodied eyes, cut eyebrows, possibly a busted eardrum and a broken
rib. He is presently detained at the Z-2 headquarters, Camp Olivas, Pampanga.
23. Cenon Sembrano - An old man probably in his fifties. His foot was singed with
a flat iron and now, is very much swollen and badly infected.
24. Butch Freneza - A detainee at Camp Olivas who was caught trying to escape.
As a punishment, his head was banged against the wall. At present, he is confined
at the National Mental Hospital.
25. Latest - Sixteen (16) detainees from Camp Olivas stated that from December
11 to 16, they were tortured and harassed in order that information may be
extracted from them.
Men - They were either singed with the flat iron, given the electric shock treatment
in the different parts of the body, others have broken ribs and hematomas because
of being beaten up.
Women — The women were molested — were forced to strip, others even were
touched in their genitals, and the others were mutilated (sinira ang sexual organs).
One girl from Baguio, Ma. Cristina Rodriguez, was forced to strip by the
interrogators and
her genitals touched.
Although no specific names had been mentioned, there had been cases of the use
of electric shock on the genital organs.
Other torture cases from other camps:
1 . Fidel Agcaoili - He was arrested in Pangasinan last April. Experienced sitting on
blocks of ice for hours, was given the water cure and was also given morphine
injections to extract information from him. He is presently detained at 5th CSU,
Crame with his wife.
2. Mila Garcia - Together with the other female detainees presently detained at 5th
CSU, Crame. Experienced being forced to strip and beaten up during interrogation.
They are taken in the middle of the night, brought to a dark room where they are
forced to strip and heaten up, was found dead at 5th CSU with muriatic acid forced
down her
throat. She was apprehended in Pampanga late this year and was brutally tortured.
Her case had been brought to the authorities but up to now, there has been no
response nor any investigation for that matter.
Other constant methods of torture are:
— pointing the gun (nakakasa) while asking for information;
— "playing" (paghampas ng baril) with the gun (a .45 calibre) pointed to the head,
chest, back, shoulders;
— Applying lighted cigarette butts on the skin;
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
— placing bullets in between the fingers and squeezing fingers together until the
muscles and nerves are almost cut; etc.
— electric torture a being applied on fingers and toes, temple, abdomen, chest,
and sexual organs (especially among the male)
Most of these detainees are between 20 and 30 years old. The youngest is 19,
and the oldest is over 40 years of age. The question the detainees ask is; "To use
such brutality. . . is that reforming them?"
Of late, Marcos had released prominent political prisoners and allowed a
few dissenters who cannot organize armed opposition to even give statements
to the foreign press for foreign consumption. Marcos has even gone to the
extent of “tolerating” criticisms of his regime to be aired by some “cleared" Fil-
ipino leaders in the foreign press, but never in the domestic press.
In earlier days of the martial regime, prominent political opponents released
from the military stockade were made to sign documents stating among others
that they would not allow themselves to be interviewed by the foreign press.
Senator Diokno was among those who was released from the stockade
subject to that condition.
Chapter XII
The Era of Thought Control
The night the dark shadows of totalitarianism swallowed the Philippines on
September 22. 1972, the intellectual lights went out, along with the other
"inalienable" rights of the Filipino people. President Marcos' military might
choked hard at the throats of writers, editors and publishers, and the media
facilities. The Philippines went into a deathly journalistic silence.
Throughout the country, but most especially in the Greater Manila area.
Constabulary troopers sealed newspaper, radio and television facilities, and
told staff members on the graveyard shift to "go home, martial law has been
declared."
In simultaneous actions, teams of PC troops arrested leading journalists in
Manila and other areas of the country. Those arrested in the Greater Manila
area were confined either at Camp Crame or Fort Bonifacio. Provincial
constabulary barracks served as jails for provincial journalists.
International cable and telephone facilities were closed, thereby effectively
shutting down the operations of foreign news agencies, too.
Some raiding or arresting teams seemed kind of apologetic for the action
they were doing. The general tenor of the authority they invoked in closing down
the media facilities and in arresting journalists was that they were acting "on
orders of the commander-in-chief." They would not show their written orders.
However, they declared that they were acting in accordance with the O.B.
(Order of Battle) issued to them.
It turned out that the Order of Battle against the media tribe was contained
in two separate documents made public only at 7:20 p.m. on September 23,
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
1972. These were General Order No. 2-A addressed to Secretary Enrile, and
Letter of Instructions No. 1 issued by Marcos.
G.O. No. 2-A read in part:
"Pursuant to Proclamation No. 1 081 , dated September 21 , 1 982, and in my
capacity as Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the Philippines, I
hereby order you as Secretary of National Defense to forthwith arrest or cause
the arrest and take into your custody the individuals named in the attached lists
for being participants or for having given aid and comfort in the conspiracy to
seize political and state power in the country and to take over the government
by force, the extent of which has now assumed the proportion of an actual state
of war against our people and our legitimate government and in order to prevent
them from further committing acts that are inimical or injurious to our people,
the government and our national interest, and to hold said individuals until
otherwise so ordered by me or by my duly designated representative. (Italics
ours.)
"Likewise, I do hereby order you to arrest or cause the arrest and take into
custody and to hold them until otherwise ordered released by me or by my duly
designated representative:
"1 . Such persons as may have committed crimes and offense in furtherance
or on the occasion of or incident to or in connection with the crimes of
insurrection or rebellion as defined in Articles 134 to 138 of the Revised Penal
Code, and other crimes against public order as defined in Articles 146, 147,
148, 149, 151, 153, 154, 155, and 156 on the same Code xxx"
Letter of Instructions No. 1 was, on the other hand, addressed to both
Secretary Enrile and Secretary of Public Information Tatad. It states:
"In view of the present national emergency which has been brought
about by the activities of those who are actively engaged in a criminal
conspiracy to seize political and state power in the Philippines and to take
over the Government by force and violence the extent of which has now
assumed the proportion of an actual war against our people and their
legitimate Government, and pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081 dated
September 21 , 1 972, and in my capacity as commander-in-chief of all the
Armed Forces of the Philippines and in order to prevent the use of privately-
owned newspapers, magazines, radio and television facilities and all other
media of communications, for propaganda purposes against the government
and its duly constituted authorities or for any purpose that tends to undermine
the faith and confidence of the people in our
Government and aggravate the present national emergency, you are hereby
ordered forthwith to take over and control or cause the taking over and control
of all such newspapers, magazines, radio and television facilities and all other
media of communications, wherever they are, for the duration of the present
national emergency, or until otherwis« ordered by me or by my duly
designated representative x x x".
The era of thought control was on in the Philippines. To dissent became
a criminal offense. The freest press in Asia as we now fondly remember the
pre-martial law days of newspapering in the Philippines is but a memory.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
A delegation from the Press Foundation of Asia established that:
"The Philippine Government's action against the mass media have no
parallel in the whole of Asia. A complete shutdown of media has not been
attempted in Park Chung Hee's Korea, Ayub Khan's Pakistan, Thanarat's
Thailand, Sukarno's Indonesia, or Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.
"The Philippines remains denied of all civil liberties, its freedom of all
education, and the leaders of its mass media are in prison without trial.
"The Philippine mass media, once considered the freest in Asia, have been
suppressed to the point of death; the most well known and established among
them have no chance of reappearance and this country of 39 million people is
being fed on only propaganda bulletins, which are financed and operated by
President Marcos' own friends and subordinates." *1
(* 1 . T.G.S. George, "The Party's Over," Far Eastern Economic Review, November 18, 1972.)
The worst crackdown by any one-man rule in modern history became a
badge of dishonor of the martial regime of President Marcos. Marcos did not
take any chances. He ordered the closure of all newspapers, radio and
television facilities and detained those newsmen who were unsympathetic to
the Marcos administration.
The crackdown was conducted as if the mass media were belligerents in a
full-pledged war which the savior of the Republic, Marcos, won with his brilliant
generalship of the military establishment.
When the smoke of battle with the press cleared, the military regime
accounted for “heavy losses” inflicted by the “heroic armed forces” on the
“enemy” mass media, to wit:
1) Killed — over a dozen security guards at the “Iglesia ni Kristo” radio
station.
2) Closure, in the Greater Manila area, of seven major English dailies, three
Pilipino dailies, one English-Pilipino daily, eleven English weekly magazines,
one Spanish daily, four Chinese dailies, three business publications, one news
service, and seven television stations, and in the provinces, and 66 community
newspapers.
3) Closure of 292 radio stations all over the country.
Except in one instance, there was no resistance at all to the efforts of the
Constabulary troopers to padlock any media facility. The deployment of troops,
therefore, to carry out the task of sealing the newspaper, radio and television
facilities was really unnecessary. As a matter of fact, the entire exercise of
martial law was absolutely unnecessary, if the objective were only to
fight off the pockets of rebellion going on in the countryside.
Marcos sought to justify the harsh treatment of the Philippine media in a
speech to military commanders convened in Malacanang for a briefing on the
“achievements” of the New Society under the one-week old martial law. He
said:
“The enemy uses the weapons of modem revolution, the media —
newspapers, television, and radio — to promote anything that assaults and
destroys the foundation of society. Therefore, the commander-in-chief must
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
meet this threat not only with modem artillery, tanks, bullets, and rifles, but with
the most sophisticated weapons of preventive operations, of even media.
“This is the rationale for the arrest of some in media who participated in
subversion by allowing consciously or unconsciously the printing, publication,
dissemination, and spreading of stories to undermine the system in which we
live; strengthened the morale, or gave aid and comfort to the enemy.” * 2
(*2. Speech of President Marcos before military officers on September 27, 1972, at the
Malacanang Reception Hall.)
He added that the journalists were picked up “not becausethey were critical
of me” or because of “mere mischievousnessor vengeance or vindictiveness”
but because they “participated in a Communist conspiracy.” He pronounced
that “we got the goods on them.” To date, however, no single journalist arrested
during martial law has ever been charged before any tribunal, civil or military.
The broad charges were treated with skepticism anyway. As a matter of
act, it is now of universal knowledge that martial law was resorted to by Marcos
only for the purpose of perpetuating himself in power.
The one newspaper which never closed its doors was the Daily Express.
Its sister facility, television channel 9, and allied radio stations of the Kanlaon
Broadcasting System, also reopened the very day the media men were being
rounded up by Marcos agents for incarceration. This fact automatically linked
the tri-media facilities to the dictatorship. It was just as well. For although
Ambassador Roberto S. Benedicto appears as the ostensible owner of the
media complex, the truth is that it is owned by no less than President Marcos
himself.
Before the end of the year 1972, a new newspaper, the Times Journal, was
organized and published by a group headed by Gov. Benjamin "Kokoy"
Romualdez. The former Manila Daily Bulletin was allowed to re-open under the
new name of Bulletin Today.
Although these re-opened facilities tried to be news-giving establishments,
they performed quite more often as a Marcos megaphone.
A freelance writer, Nicholas Tomalin, who visited Manila during the first few
weeks of martial law wrote an article of the Oui magazine, entitled "The Brave
New Philippines of Ferdinand Marcos". Of press conditions, he wrote:
"The only newspaper is a dismal pro-government Sheet called the Daily
Express, which chronicles the movements noble saying of the head of state in
the cringing valet's tone that marks the controlled press of totalitarian
dictatorships throughout the world."
Investigators for the International Press Institute established that the
surviving media were "virtually unreadable." "Press, radio and television are so
pathetically emasculated that they make totalitarian Government organs like
Pravda, Izvestia and Radio Peking, Franco's Party organs, or the mouthpieces
of other dictatorships across the continents look comparatively red-bloodied.*3
(*3. Rohan, Rivet, “Anaemic Manila Press Makes Izvestia Look Red-Blooded,”
IPI Report, April, 1973.)
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Under the conditions of the tightly-controlled media, the contents of
Philippine newspapers may be likened to stones in a desert. It is really an
intellectual desert that has developed in the Philippines. Right now, the most
important criterion for a news story or magazine article is: Will it please or anger
President Marcos, the First Lady, Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile,
Information Secretary Francisco S. Tatad or the officers of the military
establishment? If the answer is in the affirmative, then the story becomes a
"must," otherwise, the story will never see the light of print. The usual No. 1
criterion that a story must be informative or instructive has taken a second
billing under the martial law norms of journalism in the Philippines.
As to the conditions of ownership, control and management of news media,
including broadcast media, in the Philippines, I had occasion to write a brief
article on the subject matter for the Philippine News in its issue of March 1 3-1 9,
1975, to wit:
ABUSE OF POWER AND CORRUPTION
With a stroke of the pen, President Marcos wrote a gory finis to the heyday
of the "freest press" in Southeast Asia.
By the stroke of the very pen that imposed martial law in the Philippines on
September 21 , 1 972, the one-man ruler paved the way for the dubious meteoric
rise - from a slavish and lapping errand boy of Manila's elite political writers to
a "noveau riche" newspaper oligarch — of his brother-in-law, former
Ambassador to the United States and now absentee Leyte Governor Benjamin
'Kokoy' Romualdez .
The entry into the Philippine media field of Kokoy, the favorite brother of
the First Lady, Mrs. Imelda R. Marcos, was at once an indelible blot on the once
shining shield of a martial regime that Marcos imposed ostensibly as an
instrument, among others, of reform in a “sick” society.
Either by design or plain subsequent acquiescence on the part of President
Marcos, Kokoy Romualdez forced his way into the country’s media industry
clearly with a corrupt and vindictive motive.
The sly insertion of Gov. Romualdez into the area of big time publishing,
with his overnight ownership of a daily newspaper, the Times-Journal (which
unashamedly copied the logo of the defunct Manila Times), spotlights the
perversion of the instruments of power at once made available to one man upon
the imposition of martial law in the Philippines.
It will be recalled that the blueprint for a proposed New Society that is at best
an illusion now in the Philippines called for the mighty interplay of three major
arms of an authoritarian government.
THREE MAJOR ARMS
These instruments of power are: 1) the military arm, to provide the coercive
process to establish peace and order and reform society; 2) the economic and
social arm, to improve the economic and social conditions of the people; and
3), the information and propaganda arm, to provide the needed circus (when
economic hardships set in) and other functions to re-orient the Filipino mind.
All these have been perverted by Marcos and his gang. Known for their
notoriety in behaving like they were leaders of a conquering army going after
the "spoils of war", the more notorious members of the gang are, aside from
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Gov. Romualdez, secretary of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile, Secretary of
Information Francisco S. Tatad, Secretary of Agriculture Arturo R. Tanco, Jr.,
Secretary of Justice Vicente Abad Santos, Ambassador Roberto S. Benedicto
and Presidential Assistant Juan C. Tuvera.
As a matter of fact, slips of paper have been passed around on several
sessions of the Cabinet, to which I practically belonged as an “ex oficio”
member, that sets of “T’s” plague the New Society, namely: 1) Tanco, Tatad
and Tuvera; and 2) Tanco, typhoon and tungro (a rice disease).
Lest I be accused of deviating from the subject of my column this week in
much the same way that I have charged that Marcos has abandoned the
original objectives of the “peaceful revolution” he launched on September 21,
1972, let me go back to the ways by which Marcos had, by his own design or
by the manipulation of cronies and relatives, mostly in-laws, betrayed the New
Society.
Although I intended to write extensively about the corruption that vitiated,
and eventually wrecked, the noble and lofty objectives of the projected New
Society in the Philippines, I will deal in this column and subsequent ones on the
transformation of what once was the “freest press” in Asia into a so-called
responsible media whose only claim to freedom now is its untrammeled right
to sing hosannas and praises to the President, his wife and his in-laws, and to
print in full (for free) at all times the empty and high fallutin’ speeches of
Secretary Tatad.
ABUSE OF POWER
Lamentable as it is, the muzzling of the Philippine media under the harsh
authoritarian rule of Marcos becomes all the more deplorable when one notes
the abuse of power and corruption that accompanied the process of press
control.
What renders it despicable is that the abuse of power and corruption
resorted to in throwing Philippines press freedom to oblivion were crudely
conducted with an abrasive posture of coercion - as if done to command
everyone outside their circle to behold them as the only chosen few who have
a monopoly of wisdom, patriotism and love of country. It becomes a martial law
syndrome in tire worst form.
Consider as an early example the pettiness displayed by Presidential
Assistant T uvera and his wife, Kerima, who is the official biographer of the First
Lady.
On learning that the Constabulary commander of the province of Negros
Oriental had reopened some months after September 21,1972, radio station
DYRI, which was owned by Silliman University in Dumaguete City, Tuvera
flared up, saying the military should never have allowed the station to go on
the air again. He submitted a note to the President, stating that the Silliman
station was staffed by subversives and should be closed down again. Marcos
wrote the word "Approved" on Tuvera's note, and the husband of the First
Lady's biographer gleefully transmitted the presidential directive to the PC
command in Dumaguete City.
The PC commander dutifully closed down the radio station anew, but
submitted a report disputing the Tuvera accusation. Brig. Cien. Fidel Ramos,
Constabulary chief, also took up the cudgels for the Silliman radio station,
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
adding, in his communication to the President, that the station was actually
being utilized by the PC to broadcast martial law materials and amnesty offers
to the Communist rebels.
It fell on my lot to reopen radio station when I became chairman of the Media
Advisory Council. But to preserve "good relations" with Tuvera, I advised the
station manager who came to Manila all the way from Dumaguete City to plead
for his station to pay a courtesy call on the diminutive presidential assistant.
I found out later from Presidential Executive Assistant Jacobo C. Clave that
the Tuveras were thrown out of the Silliman University long before martial law
for the same reason that they are detested up to this time by most Philippine
journalists, i.e. behaving as if they alone had a monopoly of the writing ability.
If T uvera's crackdown on the Silliman radio station represented abuse of power
guided by pettiness, the action of Information Secretary Tatad in refusing to
authorize payment of printing bills for the '"Know Your New Constitution"
campaign in December, 1 972, spotlights the corruption that has come to plague
what is supposed to be a reformed Philippine Society.
ON TATAD
As propaganda chief, Tatad was put in charge of the information campaign
on the new Constitution. One aspect of this called for the printing of millions of
pesos worth of propaganda materials for nationwide distribution.
Tatad, who used to ride the bus during his brief career as a working
newspaperman but now has a mansion at the exclusive Quezon City
millionaires' enclave known as "La Vista" concentrated his efforts on the printing
jobs, leaving the creative and news management aspects of the campaign to a
group unofficially headed by me, in collaboration with long-time friend and loyal
colleague, Vicente M. Tanedo. This group had to have guidance from
Presidential Assistant Guillermo C. De Vega.
The reason behind the unusual interest of Tatad on the printing jobs
surfaced later. Since the National Media Production Center could not handle
the printing of all information materials, Tatad decided to farm out the jobs to
private printers, after he had assessed such state financing institutions as the
Philippine National Bank, the Development Bank of the Philippines, the Social
Security System and the Government Service Insurance System for
P500,000,00 each to help his department defray the printing expenses. Tatad
found this job very juicy as he would later in various phases of the information
campaign for the New Society. He withheld payment of printing bills, unless and
until the 15 per cent commission he demanded was satisfied. In at least two
cases, Tatad obtained kickbacks from Capitol Publishing Company and the
Amity Printing Company in the amounts of P75,000.00 and PI 35,000.00,
respectively. The original of the cashed checks with the signatures of the
careless information secretary are now in the hands of the National Intelligence
and Security Agency, which is headed by Gen. Fabian Ver, who is also the
commander of the Presidential Security Command.
The truth of the matter is that, during the last two years or so, I, in
collaboration with my colleagues in the Malacanang Press Corps, have been
doing the dirty job of making propaganda for the regime, while Secretary Tatad
continuously maintained his posture of arrogance in the enjoyment of the power
and wherewithal of the DPI, a situation which led coffee shop wags to coin the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
phrase; A/a kay Tibo ang hirap, na kay Tatad ang sarap. (Tibo does the dirty
work, but Tatad enjoys everything.)
I advisely picked the Tuvera and Tatad cases to dramatize the abuse of
power and corruption, that plagued the information and propaganda arm of the
martial regime, the state instrumentality that also enforces press control.
The role that Gov. Romualdez and his front men, such as Antonio Ayala,
Luis Tabuena, Edmundo “Baby” Ongsiako, et al, played and continue to play
on the suppression of press freedom as well as the various facets of continuing
media control in the Philippines necessarily require separate treatment.
When I testified before the Fraser committee on June 17, 1975, in
Washington, D.C., I informed the congressional investigation on the status of
press control under the martial regime in this wise in a memorandum I
appended to my opening statement:
President Marcos anointed your humble committee witness as his media
confidant and/or hatchet man for purposes which he could not entrust to his
official Information Secretary.
1) In late March, 1973, the President alerted me to form a body or council
which would take over from a military-civilian group the responsibility of
licensing and policing private media in the Philippines. He officially created the
new body, known as the Media Advisory Council, on May 11, 1973, under
Presidential Decree No. 191. The creation of MAC and my designation as its
chairman gave the final official sanction to my being the President’s chief media
censor and propagandist, with powers to dictate to all the media owners and/or
workers what to publish and what not to publish.
No media establishment in the Philippines could operate with-
out a permit or certificate of authority to operate signed by President Marcos
and myself as MAC chairman.
2) Even before my appointment as MAC chairman, I had already started
performing the task of Mr. Marcos’ hatchet man for media and/or for the
utilization of media in promoting the ends of Mr. Marcos himself, his front men
and brothers-in-law.
3) On instructions of the President, I signed a permit that enabled his No.
1 front man, Roberto S. Benedicto, to take over the multi-million dollar radio-TV
complex which used to be owned bybusiness tycoon Eugenio Lopez, Sr. The
son of this tycoon, Eugenio, Jr. is languishing in a military stockade, falsely
accused of alleged participation in a plot to assassinate the President.
Benedicto has not paid a single cent for the use of the Lopez radio-TV
complex. When some of the Lopez caretakers in Manila agitated for payment
of rentals to the owners, they were arrested by the military and thrown to the
stockade on planted evidence, accused of alleged subversion.
4) On instructions of the President, I also signed a permit allowing the front
men of the President’s brother-in-law to occupy the most modem newspaper
printing plant in Asia, known as the “Chronicle Publishing Company,” so they
could start publishinga new daily newspaper, the Times-Journal. These people
are way behind in their grudging payment of rentals, although they are raking
a fortune in advertising revenues.
5) With the guidance of the President, I prepared a host of news stories
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
beamed to specific sectors of the country, e.g. a) In early October, 1972, when
the President got hold of a report that the Supreme Court might invalidate the
martial law proclamation because of flaws in the factual basis of the
proclamation, he instructed me to publish a series of stories on the massing “by
the thousands” of New People’s Army rebels in the hills around Manila; b) In
December, 1972, when the President sensed from the tenor of the campaign
that the New Constitution would not win approval in a plebiscite, he instructed
me to publish stories assailing the disruptive effects of the campaign; he
subsequently cancelled the plebiscite; c) On Christmas Day, 1972, after
receiving a report that the members of the Senate had met and decided on
December 24, 1972, to convene in session on January 23,1973, pursuant to
the 1935 Constitution, Mr. Marcos instructed me to publish a series of news
exposing ‘a scheme of the Senators to negate the gains of society under martial
law. . .to investigate the acts of martial law and subpoena subsequently some
of the dangerous political prisoners from the stockade’; d) In August, 1973, he
instructed me to wnte a series of stories denouncing alleged stock manipulation
by some officials of the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company, a
multi-million dollar firm which neither Mr. Marcos nor his front men had as yet
succeeded in compelling to allow outside participation in their corporate
structure, xxx
The internment of press freedom in the Philippines by a dictatorial regime
cannot hold for a time. I am sure that Filipino journalists will follow the ways of
their ancestors in breaking out of their temporary bondage.
The Filipino heritage of struggling for press freedom had a shining example
during the early days of American Occupation of the Philippines. American
authorities passed a strict Sedition Law to scare off the propagandists.
However, the Filipinos continued writing articles and literary pieces which
agitated for freedom and reforms.
For instance, in Cebu province, the American military authorities even
sponsored the establishment of a newspaper, El Nuevo Dia, by Sergio
Osmena, Sr., Rafael Palma and Jaime de Veyra. These three succeeded from
time to time in attacking American colonization of the Philippines.
The most daring attack ever published was the Aves de Ftapina (Birds of
Prey). Published by the El Renacimiento in its October 30, 1908, issue, the
piece charged Dean Worcester, the Secretary of the Interior, with taking
advantage of his official position to enrich himself. Martin Ocampo and Teodoro
Kalaw, publisher and editor, respectively, of the El Renacimiento, were both
sued and convicted for libel.
Under martial law, the Filipino journalist lost his freedom once more as in
the days of Aves de Rapina.
Before the imposition of martial law, there were no laws or decrees
regulating the operation of the press. The Constitution guaranteed that “no law
shall be passed abridging the freedom of the press.”
No government license or permit was required to publish a newspaper. He
was merely accountable under the laws of libel and sedition. But he could not
be arrested without a warrant.
When Marcos imposed martial law, he did not think the media was a field
Primitivo Mijares Page 2.74
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
to be greeted with smiles. He took no chances. He would have none of the rays
of his “smiling martial law” shine upon the journalists. He was so infuriated with
some newspapermen and their lack of restraint in criticizing him.
The vengeance of Marcos came not only with the arrest of journalists and
the closure of media establishments. He laid down his restrictions on those who
would be allowed to engage in media once more.
Thus, the directive issued by the newly-created Department of Public
Information (DPI Order No. 1) required all media to “print and broadcast
accurate, objective, straight news reports of positive national value, consistent
with the efforts of the government to meet the dangers and threats that
occasioned the proclamation of martial law and the efforts to achieve a
“new society.” The news media were prohibited from carrying “any editorial
opinion, commentary, comments or asides, or any kind of political,
unauthorized, or objectionable advertising.” The new regulations also expressly
prohibited:
a. Materials that tend to incite or otherwise inflame people or individuals
against the government or any of its duly constituted authorities.
b. Materials that undermine the people’s faith and confidence in the
government or any of its instrumentalities.
c. Materials that are seditious, not based on facts, or otherwise without
definitely established and well-identified verifiable sources, or based on mere
allegation or conjecture.
d. Materials that downgrade or jeopardize the military or the law
enforcement authorities, their work and their operations.
e. Materials that abet, glorify, or sensationalize crime, disorder,
lawlessness, violence.
f. Materials that destroy or tend to destroy public morals as well as morale.
g. Materials that foment opinions and activities contrary to law.
h. Materials that sow or generate fear, panic, confusion, ignorance and
vulgarity among the people.
During the first few days of the martial regime, Marcos’ media policy was
erratic. However, he was sure of one thing: the government needs media to
disseminate its propaganda. So the Marcos-owned Daily Express and radio-TV
network, the Kanlaon Broadcasting System, which consisted of television
Channel 9 and two radio stations, were allowed to operate less than
10 hours after they were closed down. The resumption of the operations of the
tri-media was in accordance with Letter of Authority No. 1 signed by Marcos.
Marcos initially sounded out the Manila Times at about 3 p.m. on
September 23,1972, if it could re-publish on a temporary permit. Jose Luna
Castro, executive editor of the Manila Times Publishing Company, told Tatad
flatly that his paper would not resume publication on a temporary permit.
Besides, he added, there would be no time to summon the editorial staff and
employees of other departments to report for work that day. Castro was still
angry over the closure of his newspaper and the arrest a few hours earlier of
his publisher, Joaquin “Chino” P. Roces. The government offer to re-open the
Manila Times was never renewed.
Two weeks later, the Philippines Herald was given a permit to operate,
Primitivo Mijares Page Z75
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
along with its sister radio-TV network, including Radio Mindanao Network and
TV-Channel 13. Their permit was contained in Letter of Authority No. 2 which
was issued following a conference between the President and Jose Soriano,
president of the Soriano enterprises, which included the Herald tri-media.
However, as the Herald presses were grinding out its first martial law edition,
Metrocom troopers came rushing to the DMHM building on Muralla, in
Intramuros, Manila, to close down the newspaper for the second time.
Secretary Tatad explained that the shutdown was necessitated by the
existence of a labor dispute within the publishing company. The radio-TV
permits were not revoked.
The real story, however, is that Gov. Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez
obtained a countermanding order from the President the same evening that the
first martial law edition of the Herald was being put to bed. Kokoy at the time
was finalizing plans to publish an entirely new newspaper. By late October,
1972, he had obtained Letter of Authority No. 3 from Marcos to publish the
Times-Journal.
Kokoy Romualdez, the overnight publisher, initially had the Times-Journal
printed for his front organization, the Philippine Journalists, Inc., by the Daily
Express. The big deal was that the Daily Express would print the Times-Journal
on a daily cash basis. He found the arrangement very inconvenient
because another Romualdez, Enrique “Pocholo”, the Daily Express executive
editor, would not allow uncle Kokoy Romualdez to default in his daily payments
by more than six hours.
Kokoy finally eyed the most modern newspaper printing plant in all of
Southeast Asia, that of the closed Manila Chronicle. There Kokoy did not have
to pay daily through the nose. He arranged for the use by the Times-Journal of
the entire Chronicle facilities, including the editorial offices and electronic type-
setting and printing machines, and he did not have to worry about daily
payments. He even conveniently forgot to pay the monthly rentals to the
Benpress Corporation. At one time, I was urged by the 900 jobless Manila
Chronicle staff writers and employees to remind Kokoy about his failure to pay
his rentals. It was from, these rentals that the monthly allowance which
Eugenio Lopez had decided to dole out to his displaced employees was being
taken out. When I did, Kokoy snarled at me, and told me to stop representing
the Lopez interests. I shot back that I was speaking for the thousands of media
men rendered jobless by martial law.
All told, no less than 50,000 gainfully employed persons suddenly joined
the legions of unemployed with the closure by Marcos of newspapers, radio
and television stations.
Gerald N. Hill, a former journalism professor at the University of San
Francisco who now practises as a full-time lawyer also in San Francisco, made
a brief allusion to conditions of the press in the Philippines in making a full-
length report on certain aspects of martial law in the Philippines. Here is his
report, which I quote with approval:
Freedom of the press and media in the Philippines today (February, 1 975)
is nothing but a memory. Since September, 1 972 — when President Ferdinand
Marcos declared martial law — the Philippine press and media have been
completely under the control of the President and his agents. Simultaneously
Primitivo Mijares Page 2.76
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
with the martial law declaration, the President ordered the military to
seize and close down all newspapers and broadcasting facilities with the
exception of his own Daily Express, the pro-Marcos KBS station, and a handful
of other publications supporting him. Publishers, editors and writers were
arrested; they remain in prison today, xxx
Officially, censorship was imposed by two decrees two days after martial
law was declared. The first decree proscribed news items detrimental to the
government and set up the censorship machinery. The second decree covered
all printing and provided that mass distribution of printed material required
approval of a new Department of Public Information. The next day the govern-
ment announced that six major daily newspapers were indefinitely suspended
from the right to publish. The press control operation was under the control of
one Francisco Tatad, who is still the number one press spokesman for the
President.
The strongly anti-Marcos Friends of the Filipino People Washington Report
for February, 1975, claims in the lead article that the news in the three daily
newspapers now permitted to publish is virtually identical.
Dr. Lent has also published a study for the International Press Institute on
the press situation in the Philippines. In the study, he depicts various facets of
continuing press control: 1) disciplinary action to editors and writers who, even
inadvertently, write contrary to the government lines; 2) the concentration of the
press in the hands of Marcos’ friends and relatives; and 3) the outright
operation of broadcast media by the government. Lent also describes in detail
the rise of the “underground press” published both in the Philippines and
circulated from abroad.
Despite this overwhelming body of evidence from both impartial and
partisan observers, President Marcos declared on the NBC “Today” show on
September 20,1974: “There is no censorship at present.” His full statement is
illustrative of his logic:
“Immediately after martial law was proclaimed on September 21 , 1 972, we
had a censorship decree. I immediately, however, withdrew censorship as soon
as possible. There was also a committee that controlled the media composed
of the Secretary of Public Information, the Secretary of National Defense and
some other members. I dismantled this committee and instead organized,
rather directed, that the publishers and the owners and the directors of all the
media — the newspapers, television stations and radio stations — organize
themselves and that they control the media. That is the status of media as of
now. It is not controlled by the government. It is, however, supervised by its
own policemen — the publishers, the owners of radio and TV stations. There is
no censorship at present.”
What he did not say was that by the time the so-called committee was
organized all publishers and media directors were his people.
Despite his denial of censorship, President Marcos found it necessary in
anticipation of the next national “referendum” scheduled for February 27th, to
issue certain “free debate” rules for the period February 7 through 21, 1975.
The San Francisco-based Philippine News, in a story datelined Manila,
describes these rules. The story quotes General Order No. 51 which limits
Primitivo Mijares Page 2.77
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
printed materials to small handbills and posters two by three feet. Prohi-
bited are billboards and audio-visual materials.
The fettered Philippine press has attracted increasing negative attention
from journalists throughout the world. The International Press Institute has
demanded the immediate release of publisher Lopez by resolution. Robert U.
Brown in Editor and Publisher, January 25, 1975, cites the Lopez case and
declared that “Freedom of the press has disappeared” in the Philippines.
Critical editorials have appeared recently in the Milwaukee Journal, the
Christian Science Monitor, the Palo Alto Times, the Philadelphia
Evening Bulletin and the Chicago Tribune.
Ever the methodical politician, Marcos took stock of the initial confusion
concerning the control of media. He took more decisive steps thereafter. He
insured the perpetual captivity of the entire word machine in the Philippines
through ownership, censorship and licensing of media.
Marcos initially created a Department of Public information to take charge
of media censorship and licensing. In less than 45 days of martial law, he
yielded to military demands that the soldiers share with civil officials in media
control. On November 2, 1972, the President created the Mass Media
Council/4 Less than six months later, the Mass Media Council was abolished
and in its stead was created a Media Advisory Council/5 MAC operated for
18 months. Marcos found it necessary to resort to another innovation. He
disbanded the MAC and reallocated its functions to two separate bodies, the
Print Media council and the Broadcast Media Council.*6
(* 4 . Presidential Decree No. 36, dated November 2, 1972.)
(*5. Presidential Decree No. 191, dated May 11, 1973.)
(*6. Presidential Decree No. 576, dated November 9, 1974.)
The day Marcos announced the imposition of martial law, he reorganized
the Press Office under the Office of the President into a full-sized Cabinet
Department, known as the DPI. This was done by virtue of Presidential Decree
No. 1. Then under Letter of Implementation No. 12, the President funded the
DPI with a gargantuan outlay for propaganda and information to the tune of P91
million (roughly $17 million). Marcos was to say later that he didn't realize that
Information Secretary Tatad had made him sign such a huge budget "for
nothing." Under the DPI bureaucratic scheme, the President sanctioned the
creation of the Presidential Press Office, a Bureau of National and Foreign
Information, a Bureau of Broadcast, a Bureau of Standards for Mass Media, a
Bureau of Research, Evaluation and Special Operations, and several
regulatory units. The DPI then became the major manufacturer of news, press
releases, books, radio and television programs, and even a long-playing album,
"No Shade But Light," which was a recording of excerpts of presidential
speeches.
However, the proliferation of agencies under the DPI gave rise to rivalries
and clashes between the civilian information office and the military's Office for
Civil Relations. The OCR headed then and until now by permanent Colonel Noe
S. Andaya, felt that, in matters of censorship, it was supreme over even the
DPI.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
To clarify matters, President Marcos promulgated Presidential Decree No.
36 creating the Mass Media Council on November 2, 1972. The decree
designated the Secretary of National Defense and the Secretary of Public
Information as co-chairmen. The decree provided essentially that "no
newspaper, magazine, periodical or publication of any kind, radio, television or
telecommunications facility, station or network may so operate without
obtaining from the Mass Media Council a certificate of authority to operate prior
to actual operation. Such certificate of authority shall be duly signed by the
President, and shall be in force for six months, renewable for another six
months thereafter, unless otherwise terminated earlier."
Under this decree, the government could grant, deny or revoke a permit of
any media facility. But instead of resolving a jurisdictional dispute between the
DPI and the OCR, Presidential Decree No 36 merely served to formalize what
has been going on since September 23, 1972.
President Executive Assistant Jacobo C. Clave discovered that PD No. 36
merely served to stress the obvious. It reasserted the arbitrary nature of a
martial law regime. The decree did not provide for a procedure of hearing a
violation and conviction therefore. He flared and glared at Tuvera for
"embarrassing the President again by his ignorance." Tuvera, who is not a
lawyer, drafted the decree.
So, hastily. Clave drafted a General Order for the signature of the President
on November 9, 1 972. Designated as General Order No. 1 2-C, it threw into the
exclusive jurisdiction of military tribunals violations of Presidential Decree No.
36.
By mid-March, 1973, however, the feuding for jurisdiction over media
between Secretaries Tatad and Enrile themselves have worsened. All of a
sudden, the two Cabinet members and their minions wanted a piece of the
action on the glamorous media control task of the martial regime. The feuding
mired in intrigues the task of processing media applications for permits to
reopen. It reached a point that whenever either Enrile or Tatad signed a permit
ahead of the other, one of them would withhold the needed second signature.
Media became more attractive to the censors and licensing agents when
the show business, including the comely actresses of the stage and film, came
under the classification of media. Tatad proved much more opportunistic than
Enrile on the matter of venturing into the highly attractive show business. He
set up a process in motion to get even the movie censorship field. It was at this
point in time, when Presidential Assistant Guillermo C. De Vega made
Information Secretary Tatad run practically naked from his sauna bath at the
Manila Hilton to the office of De Vega in the Executive office at 2:30 p.m. one
day. Not even a call from President Marcos could make Tatad move that fast.
This time he had to. He knew what was in store for him. I also knew what was
in store for him because I was in the office of De Vega when Tatad was
"summoned" by the Presidential Assistant from the comfort of an early
afternoon sauna bath-massage at the Hilton.
"Ambicioso itong si Tatad. (This Tatad is overly ambitious.) If I don't cut him
down to size now, he may prove too ambitious to even covet the position of Sir
(the President). Stay here, Tibo. Watch me chop him to pieces," De Vega stated
coldly as we waited for Tatad.
Primitivo Mijares Page Z7d
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Tatad arrived with his bodyguards and his usual air of arrogance.
Characteristically, he peeped through Gimo's door and made a Buddha-like
sign of obeisance to Gimo. The presidential assistant spoke softly, telling Tatad
to come in and close the door behind him. "Kit," he started, "if you want my job
as chairman of the Board of Censors (for motion pictures), let us go together to
the 'boss' (the President) and you tell him straight you want my job."
"Watting ganyanan. boss. Ikaw naman, mainit kaagad ang ulo mo. " (Let's
discuss this, boss (referring to Gimo). Why do you have to lose your temper
right?)" Tatad declared, with all the humility he could muster.
De Vega was sore. Upon his elevation to full-fledged Cabinet rank, Tatad
decided that movie censorship would have to be brought under the jurisdiction
of the new department of information. As a first step, he summoned Godofredo
Camacho, executive secretary of the board of censors, to his office. Tatad
told Camacho ex cathedra that censorship of the celluloid magic would be
brought within the DPI jurisdiction. How would Dr. De Vega fit into this thing?”
Camacho asked. “Tell him he will have to work under me. I am the new minister
of propaganda. I am now the No. 2 man, next only to the President, in hierarchy
of the martial law regime." Tatad was reported by Camacho to De Vega as
having thus stated.
De Vega quoted Camacho’s report to Tatad almost word for word. Tatad
tried to stand his ground that movie censorship actually falls within the province
of the information department. As long as he was the DPI chieftain, Tatad
declared, he would have to do his duty.
Gimo then delivered the “coup de grace” on Tatad. He brought out a sheet
of paper which bore the signature of President Marcos. It was Letter of
Instructions No. 1 3 placing movie censorship under the exclusive jurisdiction of
the Board of Censors for Motion Pictures.
Tatad was all of a sudden a chastened man. He tolcIGimo he did what he
did because he wanted to preempt the military on the matter of exercising
jurisdiction over the movie industry. “You know very well, my good doctor, that
the military people are so heady these days that they would want to place all
aspects of government under military jurisdiction.”
De Vega said he didn’t care whatever motivations Tatad had for trying to
encroach into the movie field. Just lay off, Gimo counselled Tatad. De Vega
reminded Tatad that he had not joined his fellow-presidential assistants, Clave
and Tuvera, in organizing a Palace clique against the DPI secretary. If Tatad
did not cease and desist in his attempt to poach into Gimo’s territory, the clique
could be made a triumvirate, De Vega warned. Tatad thanked Gimo profusely
for having it out with him, instead of (Gimo) immediately teaming up with Clave
and Tuvera. He pledged undying loyalty and devotion to Gimo.
Tatad proved his sincerity to De Vega by subsequently directing his special
agents to rent a room at the Hotel Enrico along Padre Faura in Manila. The
room was adjacent to De Vega’s own suite. From the Tatad room, his special
agents kept track of people coming in and out of De Vega’s suite. Tatad wanted
a dossier on Gimo.
The presidential assistant discovered the Tatad espionage later on.
That early the royal Palace of Ferdinand and Imelda had already acquired
one of the distinct characteristics of royalty. The subalterns were clawing at, or
Primitivo Mijares Page ZSO
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
axing, each other to protect and preserve powers previously granted by, or to
win more such powers Irom, the ruling duumvirate. Media control did not es-
cape the lengthening tentacles of Palace intrigues. Marcos was compelled by
the in-fighting among his subordinates to improvise a different system of press
gag. Palace intrigues thereby served as the midwife in the birth of a new
censorship and licensing body, the Media Advisory Council, on May 1 1 ,1 973.
Thus, the Mass Media Council established by PD No. 36 was abolished
and in its stead was created the Media Advisory Council. MAC membership
consisted of representatives from sectoral media and headed by the president
of the National Press Club. I happened to be the NPC President at the time.
However, even if I had not been NPC president at the time, I still would have
been named by President Marcos as MAC chief.
In late March, 1973, Marcos told me and Secretary De Vega that he would
like to phase out the Mass Media Council. He had heard of the bickerings
between Enrile and Tatad over the processing of applications for re-opening of
newspapers and radio stations. Marcos also had been receiving streams of
complaints on the corruption and abuse of power being committed by military
men assigned to the Office for Civil Relations and Tatad’s men under the
Bureau of Standards for Mass Media. In the early days of the MMC, Enrile and
Tatad'agreed that the OCR would act as the executive arm of the council. They
also agreed that the BSMM would be the technical adviser of the executive
arm. In other words, everybody would get a piece of the action.
However, when Marcos decided finally on May 4,1972, on the abolition of
the MC, he could not very well admit failure of the earlier system of press
control. To preserve his own neck, Marcos had to maintain an aura of
infallibility. He had to keep up with his bogus omniscience. Nevertheless, he
knew that press control, or any other control for that matter, hardly ever
worked. His own experience with the Import Control Law, which he drafted in
Congress when he was still a congressman, told him that it would work only to
feed the hungry mouth of corruption. The Import Control Law had yielded
millions of dollars for Marcos then.
As he prepared to gun down the military hold on press censorship, Marcos
needed to move skillfully to avoid antagonizing Enrile and the defense
establishment. He could very well afford to embarrass Tatad as he had done
so often before. Enrile, however, was in a position too sensitive to be
prematurely exposed to public ridicule. The stripping of power from Enrile
would have to be done cautiously and with a rationale that Enrile himself would
be happy to accept. It was not only the glamorous job of media licensing and
censorship that is being taken out of Enrile’s hands.
On the other hand, Marcos had to be mindful of avoiding any hint of a
confession of failure in the matter of imposing media control. Every move,
whether it be impelled by failure or the desire for further successes, must be
squeezed of its utmost propaganda value.
To his credit, Marcos is a past master of the art of double-talk. He never
hesitated to exalt in his mastery of the art. Marcos would not spare even people
closest to him the punishment of a double-talk.
Thus, when he decided on May 4,1972, to clip Enrile’s wings, Marcos
convened a Cabinet meeting for May 11. He instructed Presidential Executive
Assistant Jacobo C. Clave to inform the Cabinet members that “measures
Primitivo Mijares Page 2.81
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
towards normalization” would be taken up. This was his own way of stressing
that martial law was an “abnormal situation.” It is an abnormality, however, by
which Marcos wants to operate the New Society normally.
The Marcos “cover story” during the Cabinet meeting was that it was
necessary that the regime move speedily towards normalization. He pointed
out that the Supreme Court decision * 7 declaring the effectivity of the New
Constitution was a mandate for him to normalize certain state functions placed
under restrictions by martial rule.
(* 7 . Javellana vs. Executive Secretary, et al, G.R. No. L-36142, March 31 , 1973.)
Towards this end, Marcos told the Cabinet, he was taking media censorship
out of the joint responsibility of Enrile and Tatad. “We will now ask the media
people themselves to police themselves,” the President declared. “I will
promulgate a de- cree creating a council of newspapermen, to be headed by
the president of the National Press Club, to take over the functions
of the Mass Media Council.
“You know that the international media, particularly the American media,
have been mercilessly hammering at us for our alleged harsh treatment of the
media in the country. I wish those people would understand that we were in a
state of war. Now, however, we can probably placate them with this new
move we are taking,” Marcos declared.
Enrile was taken aback. But this was no time to show resentment. Such an
act would weaken his standing before the other members of the Cabinet. He
had, since martial law, assumed a posture that he was the next in rank and
power to the commander-in-chief. The bright and positive side in him prompted
him to act cautiously.
“In the military establishment, sir,” Enrile started, “the word of the
commander-in-chief is the law. We can only obey his orders, even if we get
killed in the process.” Enrile could not hide the bitterness in his tone. However,
he managed to smile most of the time.
Then, assuming an altogether different posture, Enrile complained that the
defense establishment was really saddled with jobs that were better undertaken
by the civil officials. He reminded the Cabinet meeting that the major task of the
armed forces was to maintain peace and order and guard against the
enemies of the Republic.
“Oh, yes, Johnny. I know that you have been overworking yourself. That is
one of the reasons I think you should be relieved of some of your non-military
duties,” Marcos intervened.
“As a matter of fact, in consonance with the decision to move towards
normalization,” Marcos said, “we are also transferring the job of issuing travel
permits to the civilian authorities.” He said the function of screening applications
for travel permits would be given back to the Department of For-
eign Affairs.
“I would like to express the appreciation of the defense establishment, sir,
for taking these non-military functions off our shoulders. We did try very hard,
however, to carry out these duties when they were assigned to us by the
commander-in-chief upon the proclamation of martial law,” Enrile declared.
Marcos said he was signing a Letter of Instructions prepared by De Vega
Primitivo Mijares Page ZSZ
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
creating a new travel committee. He announced that Undersecretary of Foreign
Affairs Manuel D. Collantes would serve as chairman, and Major General
Fabian C. Ver as its co-chairman. De Vega himself was to be a member of the
committee.
Upon the declaration of martial law, the function of issuing travel documents
was taken over by Secretary Enrile without any specific instructions on the
theory of residual powers vested in him as martial law implementor.
As a further move towards normalization, the President announced that he
had decided to create a new Cabinet department, the Department of Tourism,
to promote the country’s industry.* 8 As a sop to the military, President Marcos
revealed that he had decided to create a National Defense College of the
Philippines.* 9 He said it would answer a felt need for an institution to provide
continuing and intensive studies of the diversified problems relative to national
defense and security.
(*8. Presidential Decree No. 189, dated May 11, 1973.)
(*9. Presidential Decree No. 190, dated May 11, 1973.)
The attempt of Marcos to cushion the impact of his blows against Enrile
was frustrated by his own secretary of information. Tatad spoke up to state that
his department wholeheartedly support the move towards normalization of
press controls. He made the Cabinet members understand that the President
had told him earlier about the planned changes on media regulation. As a
matter of fact, he said he had drafted for the signature of the President a
presidential decree creating the Media Advisory Council.
Marcos signed the Tatad-prepared decree right then and there. However,
Marcos was visibly irked. Tatad had maneuvered well for himself though. He
succeeded in avoiding at the moment any impression on the part of his
colleagues in the Cabinet that the creation of MAC was directed against him.
He really wanted to create the impression that shift in media control was
confided to him in advance by the President. Conversely, Tatad wittingly or
unwittingly isolated Enrile as the only victim of the day’s massacre.
Tatad was never in on the presidential plan to create the MAC. However, I
thought that, in the interest of “good relations,” I should tell him about the
decision to establish the MAC. On May 9, Tatad called up Clave and asked if
he had drafted a decree creating the MAC. Clave told him that he and
Secretary De Vega have agreed to assign me to draft the decree.
In turn, Tatad asked me for a copy of my draft He caused his legal advisers to
alter my draft so that he would be empowered to serve as a vital conduit
between the MAC and the President. Clave was actually taking his time during
the May 1 1 Cabinet meeting before submitting the MAC decree which I drafted,
for the signature of the President. Tatad beat Clave to it by submit-
ting his adulterated draft for Marcos’ signature.
Tatad was not to have his way on the mechanics of the media censorship.
Eagle-eyed Secretary Clave took one look at the Tatad-prepared decree. He
immediately gleaned that it was drafted with a selfish motive. In the first place,
Clave did not approve of the way Tatad had isolated Enrile as the target of
the massacre. Clave knew from the very start that it was Tatad’s incompetence
and arrogance that derailed what President Marcos had originally outlined as a
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Page 2.83
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
smooth-sailing government management of the media. Clave figured that it was
Tatad’s way of hitting back at the llocanos in the Cabinet of Marcos.
Clave confronted Tatad even before the Cabinet members could leave the
State dining room. “Are you crazy?” Clave demanded to know. The presidential
executive assistant declared within hearing distance of the President and
Secretary Enrile that the Tatad draft of the MAC decree “would make a mock-
ery” of the President’s decision to take media regulation out of the hands of
government. He explained that the Tatad draft provided that all media
certificates of authority to operate shall be processed by the MAC and shall be
submitted for final approval or disapproval by the President “through the
Secretary of Public Information. This means, Clave explained, that you still want
the information department to go over media certificates of authority to operate.
There won’t be any change at all in the procedure.”
Then, whispering to the President, Clave declared: “Sir, this would look very
bad to the military especially Johnny Enrile. It could be taken to mean that we
did away with the military role in media regulation in order to give it exclusively
to Tatad.”
The President was quick to grasp the Clave counsel. He instructed Clave
to type immediately a new draft of the MAC decree for his signature “before I
take lunch.”
Then, turning to Tatad without concealing his irritation, the President
declared: “Next time you want me to sign a decree affecting your department,
you course it first through the presidential assistants. I don’t want you doing this
thing again. I remember that you made me sign a decree giving you P91 million
for your department. Why, that’s too big a budget and you have nothing to show
for it.”
Tatad explained lamely that he thought that media regulation, like the rules
for the grant of travel permits for foreign trips, would be taken away from the
military and entrusted to civil authorities.
“Of course, not. Jake, make the draft of the decree read that media
regulation will be exclusively handled by the MAC. Anyway, Tibo, who will be
the chairman can consult me directly on MAC affairs,” the President declared.
“And don’t forget to mention the official rationale for the draft in media
regulation.”
The “official rationale” was what the President would want the outside world
to believe. He dictated his own ideas to Clave. He wanted it known that the
move of the martial regime towards normalization was on account of the
improvement of conditions in the country during the first eight months of the
New Society. He pointed out that the mass media have shown willingness to
institute a system of self-regulation and internal discipline within their ranks to
the end that no part of media may ever again, consciously or unconsciously,
engage or take part in any conspiracy against the Government.”
Any crack in the thin fabric that delicately holds the fragile martial rule
together must be heavily screened from public view. Certainly, the fact that
MAC was a child of Palace intrigues and power struggle could not be allowed
to filter outside the circle of the ruling clique.
However, the move towards "normalization" in the matter of media and
travel regulation was actually a Cabinet level "coup" which de Vega set up
about a week before May 4. The process actually started at a session of the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Mass Media Council in the OCR building at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
Secretary Enrile was in a bad mood. He had just bawled out an OCR junior
officer, Major Templo. for having surreptitiously paved the way tor the grant of
a number of MMC permits for various publications, including a weekly
newspaper which he eventually tried to convert into a daily newspaper for the
armed forces. Presently, he turned to Camacho, the secretary of the Board of
Censors for Motion Pictures, whom De Vega had earlier named as liaison man
between the movie censorship body and the MMC. Enrile demanded to know
of Camacho why the BCMP had allowed the advertising of the movie, "The
Godfather," for exhibition. He pointed out that there was so much violence and
other features of the film which were contrary to the new mores and morals
which the New Society seeks to develop. Camacho replied that it had been
reviewed and allowed for exhibition by the BCMP.
Enrile shouted: "I don't care, if the picture or any other picture has been
approved by the Board of Censors. In my capacity as defense secretary, I can
order the military to prevent or stop the exhibition of any motion picture,
regardless of whether it has been reviewed and approved by Gimo de Vega
personally. I want to take a look, at that picture.
The defense boss issued a direct order to Colonel Andaya, the OCR chief,
to demand of the BCMP that the movie, "The Godfather," be submitted for
review by the DND secretary.
Camacho reported glumly to De Vega.
At the headquarters of the OCR itself, there was glee and the intoxicating
smell of success. The Enrile posture on movie censors was the kind of stance
which the officers of the OCR have been itching for. However, they could not
invade the area of motion picture reviewing since they could not, at their level,
risk a clash with De Vega. Now, they can intrude into the De Vega territory with
the virtual pronouncement of a directive by Enrile.
I became concerned with Enrile's posture on film review, particularly as it
might affect a benefit premiere showing of "The Godfather" to raise funds for
the National Press Club of the Philippines. The Enrile outburst was reported to
me by Estrella D. Alton who happened to be at the OCR on the day the MMC
was holding its weekly session. "It looks bad for Gimo, Tibo. Johnny was in a
pugnacious mood," Alton said. I rushed to Dr. De Vega and reported the
incident to him. The presidential assistant told me not to worry. He had been
apprised by Camacho about Enrile's threat.
'"Let's find out whom the President would uphold, the Mam (Imelda) or
Enrile," De Vega told me hesitating. By that time, De Vega had already
prepared his battle plans. He knew exactly how the attack on Enrile would have
to be made, and where the initial salvo would have to be launched.
In any in-fighting and power struggle among the ranking officials of the
martial government, the best way to do battle would be to have the female half
of the conjugal dictatorship to your side. De Vega was sure of that side of the
ruling triumvirate.
De Vega opened up on Enrile with a casual report to the First Lady, Mrs.
Marcos. Then, he moved in for the kill by stating that he may no longer be able
to perform his job as BCMP chairman efficiently. He explained that Enrile and
the military want to invade the movie censorship field by imposing themselves
as the higher reviewing authority for films. Mrs. Marcos needed no further
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
explanations from De Vega. "Oo nga, talagarig sumisiba ang military ngayon.
Bayaan mo at ako ang bahalang magsabi sa Sir mo." (Oh, yes, the military is
getting to be too greedy. All right, let me tell your sir about this), Imelda told De
Vega. The look of worry in De Vega's face disappeared. He knew very well that
come that same night, the First Lady would certainly talk to the President about
De Vega's troubles with Enrile in a demanding tone that would leave the
President no choice but to crack down on his defense secretary. That was on
May 2.
By May 4, De Vega got a buzz from the First Lady. She said that she had
already "prepared the mind" of the President on De Vega's dispute with Enrile.
De Vega then decided that it was time to bring up the matter of movie
censorship officially with the President. Before the President had time to receive
his first caller, De Vega came up to Marcos' desk at the Study Room. He told
Marcos that he would like to resign his BCMP post because of the continuing
intrusion of Enrile and the military in the field of movie censorship.
Yes, the President said, he has been told about De Vega's complaint. What
does De Vega think of the over-eagerness of the military to take over movie
censorship? The secretary declared that the unusual interest of the military in
film censorship could only be likened to ants flocking to the location of sweet
sugar.
The President admitted that he himself had received reports on graft and
corruption involving the military. Is it possible that, even in the enforcement of
media control, military officers are similarly motivated? De Vega answered the
President in the affirmative.
Right then and there, Marcos decided to strip Enrile of the job of media
regulation. "We should now make it appear that we are giving back to the
newspapermen the job of self-regulation. We will assign Tibo Mijares to head
the new press body," the President declared.
Acting further to placate a sulking pillar of his regime, the President then
asked: "O, anopa, Gimo, ang nangyayari sa military?" (What else, Gimo, is
happening in the military.) De Vega talked about the graft attending the
issuance of passports and travel documents by the defense establishment.
That, too, the President decided, would have to be taken out of Enrile's hands.
Other than a decision to take media and travel regulation out of Enrile's
hands, the President would not do anything more serious. He left the question
of graft and corruption unacted upon. His posture of looking the other way
around when it came to misconduct involving the military was appalling. And
yet, if a helpless civil official in no position to fight back committed misconduct
akin to that which De Vega had accused the military of, Marcos would not
hesitate to bring down the axe on the erring official.
Thus, as a result of Enrile's intemperate outburst and the ensuing power
struggle, the Media Advisory Council came into being. The MAC was charged
with "the duty of passing upon applications of mass media for permission to
operate, so that no newspaper, magazine, periodical, or publication of any kind,
radio, television and telecommunications facility, station or network may so
operate without first obtaining a Certificate of Authority to Operate from the
Media Advisory Council. But the CAO would not become valid and effective
"until approved by the President of the Philippines," and would be effective for
six months, "unless otherwise terminated earlier."
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
During the lifetime of the MAC, every permit or certificate of authority to
operate a mass media facility necessarily had to have my signature and that of
President Marcos in order to become valid and effective. This meant that 1 don't
sign any CAO without prior clearance from the President, and the President
does not sign any CAO either if I don't show him myself that I have signed it.
The Media Advisory Council was not spared from intrigues either. This time
Tatad and Enrile appointed themselves as guardians of the new council on the
pretext that they wanted to help me run the press regulatory body. Tatad
interfered in the choice of MAC regional coordinator for the Bicol region with
station in Naga City. He didn't want me to appoint Salvador Dacer, his
compadre and former pimp, to the Naga City post. Tatad viewed this as a
declaration of war. I told him Dacer was a man of Gimo. He started sending
reports to the President on alleged wrongdoings in the MAC. At about this time,
too, he felt that I was threatening his perch at the DPI. He had good reasons to
be suspicious of me. Marcos was relying more and more on me to implement
the day-to-day propaganda program of the New Society.
For his part, Enrile kept sending his men or writing me notes telling me I
should do this or do that respecting the conduct of media regulation. At one
time, he threatened to exercise the powers of media regulation by virtue of his
residual powers as defense secretary under a martial regime. The common line
I took on this Enrile interference or threat was: I will clear what you want with
the President.
As early as December, 1973,1 began proposing to Marcos that
the MAC be abolished because it was being hamstrung by intrigues. However,
Marcos tolerated the bad fix in which media regulation was mired by his own
inaction. Obviously, he thought there would still be some uses for the MAC.
This came about February, 1974 when Marcos found it necessary to order the
MAC to investigate an American journalist, Arnold Zeitlin, bureau manager of
the “Associated Press” in Manila
However, all of a sudden he called me, Secretary Tatad and Bulletin
publisher Hans Menzi to a conference on October 15, 1974. He said the MAC
would have to be abolished because the New Society has not convinced the
world press that the media regulatory body was an independent entity. Marcos
said he would like to reallocate the functions of the MAC to two separate bodies,
one for print media and the other for the electronic media. He instructed the
three of us to work out the new decree with Clave. By this time, however, neither
Tatad nor Menzi was willing to work with Clave. Tatad had submitted at the
earlier stage of the conference a 17-page letter of resignation as DPI
secretary, confessing failure in his job allegedly on account of intrigues by
“people around the President,” not excluding possibly Mrs. Marcos herself who,
at that time, wanted him out of the Cabinet. It fell on my lot to draft the new
decree.
Clave suggested that I provide in the decree that MAC would organize the
two new bodies and then bow out of existence thereafter. He said it could be a
face-saving gesture for the MAC and its chairman, especially. I thanked him for
his concern; for Clave and I have been very close during our newspapering
days. I said I would have no time to do it anyway. I was leaving for the United
States on another mission for Marcos.
The decree which I drafted provided for the abolition not only of the Media
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Advisory Council but also of the DPI’s Bureau of Standard for Mass Media as
authorized under Letter of Implementation No. 12. The BSMM was never
discussed during the October 15,1974, conference. However, I explained to
Secretary Clave that the BSMM would have to be abolished, too, if the
President was to make good his posture that there won’t be anymore
government censorship of the press. It was with a mood of vengeance that I
included the abolition of the BSMM in the draft of the new decree. This office
had always sought to exercise media control powers even after the creation of
the MAC. It reached such a point when the few practising media men and
media owners either complained about harassment by both the MAC and
BSMM or tried to make the two agencies fight.
On November 9,1974, Marcos signed and released Presidential Decree
No. 576 abolishing both the MAC and the BSMM. The decree was exactly as I
have drafted it. It decreed the creation of Print Media Council for all
newspapers, magazines, periodicals, journals and publications, and a
Broadcast Media Council for radio and television broadcasting.
The two new councils had exactly the same powers which MAC had with
respect to their respective sectoral media. However, it no longer possessed the
power, as MAC had, to open new media facilities. Although the two bodies are
manned by journalists themselves nalists themselves, the President cannot
shield the fact that media regulation is still being orchestrated from Malacanang
Palace.
The timing of the promulgation of the new media decree was again done
with an eye to harvesting some propaganda value. It was the eve of the
departure of Mrs. Marcos for the United States to inaugurate the Philippine
Center in New York. As part of the image build up, the new decree on media
control relaxation was held out as another step towards normalization
in Manila.
However, all pretenses that censorship had been abolished fell flat. At the
height of the hunger strike of Senator Aquino in April, 1975, his family, in view
of lopsided reporting about it, wrote identical letters to the three leading morning
dailies for a paid insertion of Aquino's reasons. These had been embodied in a
public document, being part of the record in a Supreme Court case. The editor
of Bulletin Today replied "We will clear first with (the) military on the matter
regarding security matters." The Daily Express answered that since "there are
certain restrictions imposed on us x x x in this particular case, we felt that we
are not free to accept the insertion." The Times-Journal did not even bother to
reply.
This was followed by a request for another paid advertisement to announce
the schedule of daily masses being offered to Mr. Aquino. The Daily k'xpress
placed a notation "subject to approval of editors" and that the check in payment
thereof "will be returned if the ad is disppproved for publication." The others
ignored this second request.
The intensity of press controls under the martial regime has never been
fully reported by the foreign press to the outside world. Those critical stories
which have appeared sporadically in foreign periodicals barely scratch the
surface on true conditions of mass media suppression in the Philippines.
The martial regime follows a double-standard of press regulation. There is
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
a separate standard of treatment for the foreign press representatives, which is
a pained tolerance, and another for the native newsmen. But even with relaxed
controls favoring the foreign press, Filipino newsmen employed by the wire
services and stringers for large foreign newspapers are still restrained by the
fact that they and their families have to live under a martial regime. Only non-
Filipino journalists either stationed in Manila and coming in as transients on
special assignments have been able to write fearlessly about the true
situation in the Philippines, including the Muslim rebellion in Mindanao and
Sulu. As for Filipino journalists, they cannot write on any delicate affair without
prior clearance from the MAC during my time and now from the DPI, or the
military, or what have you. For instance, the native newsmen could write
about the Muslim insurgency only when the President sees some use in
publicizing it, as when he has to beam a story to the Supreme Court or to
impress visiting American lawmakers that the fighting is going on, and that the
Muslim rebels are fighting to plant the Communist flag in that southern portion
of the Philippine archipelago.
But one thing both the foreign and native media men have to suffer is the
ineptitude and laziness of Information Secretary Francisco S. Tatad.
Things seem to have improved since veteran newsman Amante Bigomia,
a former Manila Daily Bulletin Malacanang reporter assumed the post of
assistant press secretary in charge of the presidential press office. Bigomia had
vowed before never to work for President Marcos, much less under
Secretary Tatad given the circumstances prevailing before martial law.
On account of laziness or plain ineptitude of his information secretary,
President Marcos has had to devise his own means of propaganda in order to
achieve maximum impact on his personal achievements. Most of the time
Marcos had succeeded, no thanks to Tatad.
There have been two glaring Marcos improvisation at propaganda. These
involved the Muslim rebellion and the Huk dissidence.
On the Muslim "sortie." The President represented himself as having flown
to Luuk, Jolo, where he "negotiated" with the group of Muslim rebel leader Maas
Bawang who had earlier wiped out a company-sized PC patrol single-handedly
for their "cooperation" with the government.
It was on the occasion of the reporting made by Arnold Zeitlin, manager of
the Associated Press bureau of Manila, on the Maas Bawang surrender farce
that Marcos got irritated. I doff my hat to Zeitlin for his resourcefulness in digging
up the true facts. He reported superficially on facts known to me and just a few
others, including former Congressman Antonio Raquiza, who were involved in
the surrender "script." Zeitlin reported worldwide that the much-publicized
meeting between the President and the Maas Bawang group never took place
in any spot within the area of Jolo Island on the date officially reported by the
Department of Public Information and released through the Manila
newspapers. Marcos, who had been peeved by the previous "non-cooperative"
posture of Zeitlin on other matters affecting the martial regime, could simply not
stand Zeitlin's report daring to brand him a liar and cheap propaganda
stuntman. So he directed me to investigate Zeitlin, and, with the assistance of
Secretary of Foreign Affairs Carlos P. Romulo, to "brand him a Jewish
journalist." Tatad himself was privy to the directive given to me by Marcos and
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
he told me that, to cushion the impact on Zeitlin, he would do a "little PR job"
by notifying the AP bureau chief in advance of the impending investigation by
the Media Advisory Council.
In his dispatches, which came out in the Pacific edition of the Stars and
Stripes, Zeitlin categorically gave the lie to the publicity stunt that Marcos, the
belatedly much-decorated hero of Bataan, Bessang Pass and all the other
major battles of World War ll,*io dared saunter into "enemy territory" that was
Jolo sought out Maas Bawang and his band of rebels in the forbidding caves of
the Luuk jungle district (an area - which the conquering armies of Spain, the
United States and Japan never succeeded in penetrating) and, with a show of
sincerity and goodwill," convinced Maas Bawang and company to abandon
their jungle hideaways and cooperate with him in pacifying troubled Muslim
Mindanao. However, the AP bureau chief did not dig deeper for his story
Perhaps he felt that it was be yond the requirements of his profession to go
beyond the assertion that the much-acclaimed “sortie” of Marcos into forbidden
territory never really took place.
Photos of the alleged "meeting in Luuk" meeting (pronounced as
“mating")*ii were released to the press, with appropriate captions praising
even expressing concern over — the "daring and reckless quest for peace and
reconciliation" by the great New Society President. The presidential sortie into
forbidden rebel territory was glowingly described as another concrete display
by the President of his unrelenting concern to unify the diverse elements of the
country.
(*10. See Chapter on “Too Late the Hero.”)
(*1 1 . See Chapter X on how military briefings and other meetings outside the Palace are generally
suspected by the First Lady as e3xpensive ruses to provide the President with playtime and
playgirls.)
The Maas Bawang surrender is a classic example of just how far the
President would go to exploit media to suit his purposes. At the time, President
Marcos needed so badly a gimmick to turn the tide of the Muslim rebellion in
southern Philippines where the public armed forces were taking a beating.
News accounts moved out by the foreign news services and published
by the world press — and naturally relayed back to Manila “for the President’s
eyes only” — told of the military successes of the Moro Bangsa Army, the
fighting arm of the Moro National Liberation Front which wants complete
autonomy for the Mindanao-Pala wan-Sulu region. The impression created was
that Marcos could only terrorize with his martial law rule the submissive people
of Luzon and the Visayas, but not the warrior-bred, fiercely-independent
Muslims of Mindanao. So, over the objections of Secretary of Defense Juan
Ponce Fnhle and the ranking armed forces generals, Marcos authorized former
Congressman Raquiza, a long-time aspirant for the post of defense secretary,
to contact Maas Bawang, a friend of Raquiza in days gone by. Raquiza made
only one request to Maas Bawang: for him and his followers to talk to the
President in Malacanang and "any place'" that the President might designate
and have pictures of such conferences taken by the official Palace
photographer. The considerations were big. They ran into over a hundred
thousand pesos (P41 6,000.00). plus the prospects of living luxuriously in a
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
plush hotel (Hotel Filipinas) in Manila complete with wine, women and song -
prospects which Marcos authorized Raquiza to transform into reality, all at the
expense of the groaning Filipino taxpayers, and perhaps, the poor American
taxpayers, too. With an agreement arrived at, Raquiza took Maas Bawang to
Manila. President Marcos met the rag-tag rebels at Fort Bonifacio, where he
arrived on board the presidential helicopter — part of U.S. arms aid to Marcos
- and proceeded to a site previously cleared by security men near the
Malacanang golf course where he posed for the Palace photographers shaking
hands and talking to Maas Bawang and party near some rocks and big trees.
The area was supposed to be the jungle of Luuk. Later, with the President
dressed this time in elegant Pilipino barong, Maas Bawang and company were
herded to the presidential study room at Malacanang, officially received by the
President; there, Maas Bawang and followers were given one brand new
Armalite rifle each "to bring back to Jolo and fight the 'misled' rebels opposing
government forces." *12
(*12. The gun, especially a rifle, is a most priceless possession to a Muslim. A Muslim Filipino will
part with his four wives with less violence than he would with a gun.)
Military officers had on a number of occasions protested the "coddling" by
the President of the Muslim rebels. They claimed that Maas Bawang was a
bandit and not even part of the nationalistic Muslim rebels in the South. Among
the more vocal of the protesters was Commodore Gil Fernandez, commander
of the so-called Sulu Sea Frontier command who had seen hundreds of men in
his command - army, Constabulary, navy, marines - die in the hands of the
Muslim rebels. He thought that feasting Maas Bawang and his group was a
betrayal of the memory of the hundreds of soldiers who had died fighting the
secessionist Muslim rebels. Marcos relieved Fernandez of his command and
gave him a desk job in the Philippine Navy headquarters in Manila. A few
months later, Maas Bawang and members of his own family were killed in an
"ambush" allegedly staged by the Muslim rebels whom he had abandoned.
However, some military officers in the Jolo area lost no time in gloating that
they had evened up old scores with Maas Bawang. President Marcos did not
even bother to order an investigation. Obviously, he thought the liquidation of
Maas Bawang was a good solution to the problem that he was having with the
"surrenderee" who had been bombarding him with requests for appointments
of this or that judge or this or that man to a position for the Mindanao
government, and some other obviously unreasonable and unconscionable
demands. The question that was being asked was, if the troopers in Joto were
gloating over the "ambush" of Maas Bawang, and family, who authorized the
liquidation?
Another "brave sortie” of Ferdinand E. Marcos that was undertaken for no
other purpose than to stage a publicity stunt at a time when the Dictator felt that
the front pages of the controlled newspapers were publishing nothing but the
speeches of Secretaries Enrile and Tatad, Generals Espino and Ramos, and
expensive but inutile impact projects of the First lady. It involved a supposed
rendezvous Marcos had with Benjamin Sanguyo, alias Commander Pusa, one
of the few remaining "commanders" of the thinning ranks of Moscow-oriented
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Huk-balahap robels * 13 , in Central Luzon. In this "rendezvous,"- Marcos was
supposed to have sought out Sanguyo "somewhere in Central Luzon," entered
into a night long dialogue with him, and finally convinced the hot-headed
Stalinist Huk commander to "cooperate" with the President in restoring peace
and order in Central Luzon.
(*13. Commander Pusa was the man who shot up with an Armalite rifle a United States marine
corps "Jolly Green Giant" helicopter which was flying out of Clark Air Force Base to ferry goods
and supplies to marooned farmers at the height of the calamitous floods of July-August, 1972, in
Luzon. Pusa has never been charged in court for the offense.)
The truth is that Commander Pusa was contacted first by 'emissaries of
former Congressman Eduardo Cojuangco, of Tarlac province, and his protege,
Col. Romeo Gatan, chief of the Rizal province constabulary command who
occupied a lesser post in Tarlac province before the advent of martial law, and
"induced" into meeting the President. Then, with Pusa properly frisked
forbidden weapons, he was brought to the Malacanang Park, where the
President plays golf, and some additional holes and pelota, for the "meeting
somewhere in Central Luzon" with the great President of the New Society. * 14 .
This again was exploited in the news media as another daring and monumental
feat of President Marcos. At this time of writing, Commander Pusa is still
enjoying the luxurious living in Manila and its entertainment spots, courtesy of
the Filipino taxpayers.
(*14. Gen. Ver flatly told the President that his intelligence training simply told him that Commander
Pusa could not be left alone with the President. The movement of Pusa's eyes, Ver said, shows
that he is up to “something no good.”)
However, I would not be surprised at all, if one day, the controlled Manila
newspapers would publish a report that Commander Pusa was “assassinated”
by the “Sparrow Units” of the New People’s Army. Before I left the Philippines
on October 21, 1974, for my fateful trip to the United States, I have
heard reports relayed to the President that Commander Pusa had been
denounced by Metrocom troopers for his abuses along the nightclub strip on
Roxas Boulevard. I even heard President Marcos telling Major General Fabian
Crisologo-Ver to warn Congressman Cojuangco that his prized “Huk protege”
should be cautioned a bit on his impulsiveness.
News management and manipulation is a forte of Marcos; it was and still is
an important part of the fakery and duplicity that marks his political career of
perfidy in the stage of Philippine history. As early as when he was still a
congressman, I recall, he would walk up to the press gallery of the House of
Representatives and ask the newsmen: Ano kayang story ang mapakuio natin
para mapa-headline tayo bukas? (What story might we concoct so that we can
land the headlines of the newspapers tomorrow?). When he was Senate
President, and his hold on the No. 1 Senate position became increasingly
precarious in view of the manipulations of then President Diosdado
Macapagal and the late Finance Secretary RufinoG. Hechanova, Marcos would
call me by telephone in the office or in my humble house in Project 6 Quezon
City and feed me and through me, the other reporters covering the Senate beat,
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
with stories on alleged “conspiracies” being arranged by some Nacionalista
senators with the Liberals to oust him as Senate President. His objective was
to expose the NP conspirators, without naming them, and thereby discourage
them with the expose from going through with their plans to help the Macapa-
gal Liberals oust him from the premier Senate post. This was with the full
utilization of media. As it was then, so it is now — and with greater ease on the
part of Marcos because he controls media in the Philippines by the coercive
powers of his martial regime and by his virtual ownership, personally and
through in-laws and cronies, of all media establishments in the country.
The continuing efforts of the martial regime to smash the New People's
Army rebellion throughout the country is an interesting case study in media
control. Although clashes between the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines)
and the NPA (Communist New People's Army) occur daily in the countryside,
stories are given publicity only when the AFP either scores a victory or when
President Marcos finds the needs to remind the Supreme Court and some
visiting foreigners that there is "an absolute necessity to maintain martial law"
because the Communist rebellion still constitutes a clear and present danger
to the security of the country.
Marcos found the need to reassert the martial rule over media when he
instructed me in July, 1 974, to order the Philippine newspapers not to give any
publicity to the raid conducted by the Metrocom at the Jesuit Novitiate in
Novaliches. The embargo was lifted, however, three days later when copies of
the Pacific Stars and Stripes, and subsequent xerox copies, were circulated
widely in Manila, giving the story on the raid conducted by Metrocorn troopers
armed to the teeth on a place whose only occupants were foreign priests and
nuns in meditation. The version that the Manila newspapers and other media
outlets was allowed to publicize made it appear that the raid was conducted
with the "consent and assistance" of the Bishop of Manila, and that subversive
elements were captured in the raid. Archbishop Jaime Sin protested not only
the raid, which was conducted in a most irregular manner, but also the lopsided
martial law government news version that the raid was "assisted" by the officers
of the Catholic hierarchy. For Archbishop Sin and other ranking Catholic
leaders of the Philippines, the Novaliches raid was the "casus belli" they
apparently were waiting for to start their active protest against the "climate of
fear and terror" that martial law has instilled among the flock.
The signs of growing restiveness among the clergy came just a few days
after the news agencies reported the arrest by Jewish security forces of the
Greek Catholic Archbishop of Jerusalem for alleged smuggling of arms to
Palestine guerillas operating inside Israel. The Manila newspapers gave the
story of the Greek Catholic Archbishop’s arrest the usual downplay in their
foreign news sections on the inside pages. When the Filipino clergy’s
restiveness over the Novaliches raid began to gather strength and following,
what with the prayer vigil being led by Archbishop Sin himself “for the
restoration of civil liberties,” Marcos — as usual unable to find any creative
production by Secretary Tatad — himself ordered that the news story on the
arrest of the Greek archbishop be given wide and prominent publicity “in the
front pages” of the newspapers and over the radio and television stations.
Primitivo Mijares Page 2.43
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The message of Dictator Marcos came loud and clear: If Sin
did not shut up, the same fate could befall him. But the good archbishop was
not to be intimidated as he took on a more active and determined leadership of
the protest movement against martial law’s repressive rule in the Philippines.
And then, just a few days after the prayer vigil organized by Archbishop Sin
at the Manila Cathedral, a passenger bus (JD T ransit) was "bombed" as it made
a stop a near the defunct Congress building on Padre Burgos Street. In keeping
with the original guidelines, newspaper editors called MAC and the DPI for
guidance on how they should treat the story. The advice given was that they
should ignore it, as if nothing had happened. Only three men died in that
incident, caused by a hand grenade apparently left inside the bus with a timing
device. However, the following day. General Ver, Chief of the Presidential
Security Command and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, angrily
called up Tatad to inquire why he ordered the suppression of the bus bombing
incident. Not only that, the good general demanded that Tatad direct the
newspapers to publish the full details of the bombing incident. Since Narciso
Marquez, Jr., chief of the presidential press office at the time, could not get the
full story from the Metrocom and the Manila Police Department, he was obliged
to get the full story, complete with pictures of the bombed bus, from the office
of General Ver itself. Ver had the full story, too.
I easily gleaned the objective of the Ver order to publicize the story, which
was to beam a message to certain sectors of society that the relaxation of
restrictions under martial rule as demanded by the activist clergy, could lead
anew to anarchy as had happened inside the JD bus - an anarchy which I am
certain was the handiwork of agents of General Ver. Ver was the main
instrumentality of Marcos in organizing all those terrible daylight bombings and
riots before martial law in Manila, the state of anarchy Marcos badly needed to
justify the imposition of martial law in the Philippines.
The story of the Philippine media involves not only suppression or
concoction of news stories, arrests of media men critical of Marcos or plain
display of an insatiable appetite for more worldly possessions. Under martial
rule, media is also being utilized to exact vengeance on the enemies of the
President, his wife, Imelda, and brother-in-law, Kokoy Romualdez. Let us look
at the plight of Ernesto del Rosario, former editor-in-chief of the Manila
Chronicle, and Jose Luna Castro; former managing editor of the Manila
Times, both good writers, during their time. They were hired by Kokoy
Romualdez as editorial consultants of the Times-Journal for quite different
reasons. Kokoy wanted to pay a debt of gratitude or show appreciation for the
"honest broker" role played by Del Rosario in effecting a "reconciliation"
between President Marcos and the rampaging Lopez brothers a few months
before martial law was proclaimed.*i5
(*15. Perhaps, it is an ingredient of his staying in power, but Marcos is the kind of man who
would not hesitate to eat crap to attain his goals. It was in his interest that he lull the Lopezes and
all his opponents into a false sense of security while he was preparing to impose martial law. So,
he entered into a reconciliation with the Lopezes in May, 1972.)
On the other hand, Castro was hired to serve the vindictive objectives of
Kokoy. Although Joe Luna was a sponsor in the baptims of one of Kqkoy's sons
in 1962, this relationship, and important one in a Catholic country like the
Primitivo Mijares Page 2.^4
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Philippines, did not deter Kokoy from carrying out his plans. He wanted Castro
to be his slave, because he had long wanted to get even with the former Manila
Times editor for the arrogance and persecutory behavior the editor had shown
Kokoy when he has had to go around in 1965, begging the biggest daily
newspaper in Manila to use the press statements of Ferdinand Marcos. Kokoy
had that axe to grind against Joe Luna, who was a Pampangueno and an out-
and-out Macapagal sympathizer in the 1965 election campaign.
To get even with Joe Luna, Kokoy had the Manila Times editor recruited
into the Times-Journal in November, 1972, as resident editorial consultant, as
distinguished from Del Rosario's position as a non-resident editorial consultant.
Since he joined the TJ, Joe Luna has had to suffer the insults of Kokoy every
morning, and has had to bear and grin it when Kokoy would lecture to him on
how the journalism profession should be practiced.
As a further insult. Kokoy repeatedly vetoed attempts of Joe Luna to bring
in his brother-in-law, Crispulo Icban, Jr., into the TJ. "Hire anybody, except your
brother-in-law!" Kokoy would shout to Joe Luna.
It was in their role as resident and non-resident editorial consultants that
Joe Luna and Ernie del Rosario became the unhappy victims of a presidential
order for their “dismissal” from the TJ.
It came about when the Saudi Arabian government, the biggest oil supplier
of the Philippines, protested the publication by the TJ of a series of wire-service
articles on the escapades of rich Arab kings and sheiks.
Later on, Kokoy, who was — as usual indulging in his transcontinental love
affairs — was apprised in New York about the presidential order affecting the
editorial staff of his newspaper. He subsequently communicated with De Vega
who, in turn, instructed me, to get in touch with Joe Luna Castro and Ernie Del
Rosario to “reassure” them that “they would be taken care of;” they would still
get their pay from the TJ. But Joe Luna considered himself virtually under house
arrest. He would not venture outside his house because he was under
instructions not to talk to anybody about his “dismissal.”
Now, how would the'Arabs react if they found out that the “firing” of the two
editorial consultants was just a “palabas?”
As a matter of fact, Joe Luna Castro is back in harness for the TJ. He was
even brought to San Francisco in the middle of March to set up the Western
edition of the Filipino Reporter. Rosario “Nena” Olivares, the ostensible
publisher of the TJ, assisted Joe Luna in setting up house for the Filipino
Reporter’s Western edition at 61 1 Post Street in San Francisco. The FR’s
Western edition was set precisely, according to Alconcel, to serve as a general
propaganda vehicle for the Marcos administration, and more specifically, to
counteract the damaging propaganda setback for the Manila martial regime of
my defection and subsequent decision to write a column for the widest
circulation Filipino-owned news weekly, the Philippine News, the largest
circulated Filipino newspaper in the United States.
Champions of the New Society, of which I somehow was one for quite a
while, have often argued that the loss of civil liberties, especially freedom of
speech and of the press, was a necessary price Filipinos must pay for peace
and order, and social and economic progress. General Carlos P. Romulo has
even taken the lead in disparaging the relevance of liberal democracy to
Primitivo Mijares Page Z9S
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
fundamental Philippine problems.* 16
(* 16 . Speech of Secretary of Foreign Affairs Carlos P. Romulo before the Commonwealth
Club of California on May 24, 1973.)
After almost four years, however, the New Society is praised only by its
chief architects and beneficiaries. And only the controlled Philippine media
swallows that line. As a matter of fact, Philippine media have virtually nothing
but praise for the Marcos martial regime and the wealth and beauty of Imelda
Marcos. On such occasions as his or her birthday, or anniversary of
the martial regime or of their wedding, the praise for Ferdinand and Imelda
becomes almost hero worship.
Verily, the curtailment of press freedom will go on in the Philippines. Marcos
does not intend to give back freedom of the press to the journalists. However,
innovations will be resorted to as demanded by the circumstances to avoid the
appearance of government control of media. This will be so, because the
martial regime is more concerned with strengthening its powers than
implementing basic reforms.
The so-called emancipation of the press under Presidential Decree No. 576
is illusory and at best misleading. Marcos cannot convince me that censorship
has been abolished. I know how he operates. He operated media control
personally through me while I was chairman of the Media Advisory Council. In
any case, whether prior censorship has been abolished or not, post-publication
censorship has not ceased. This is done through the licensing power. The
Sword of Damocles that hangs over the head of Philippine mass media is the
reason for the timidity of media men under the martial regime.
The antagonistic attitude of the military towards the mass media was
developed by Marcos himself. Marcos successfully convinced the military' that
most mass media people were Communist sympathizers. This was the reason
for the wholesale closings and arbitrary arrests of publishers and journalists
known to be hostile to Marcos as martial law was imposed. The army assumed
an attitude that the mass media were directly responsible for the growing
discontent of the past years. Marcos beefed up this posture by placing the initial
job of censorship in the hands of the military.
As the first media censors of the dictatorship, the military remained
sensitive to any adverse publicity against the defense establishment or the
ruling duumvirate in Malacanang.
With the mass media reduced to docility, people naturally found outlets for
saying things. They resorted to rumors. Rumor-mongering then became a
major source of trouble, for the martial law administrators. Marcos signed a
decree declaring rumor-mongering a crime triable by military tribunals.
Rumors and the spreading of rumors were not only banned, but were
decreed subversive, ipso facto. Major General Fidel Ramos, chief of the
Philippine Constabulary, declared that: "Rumor-mongers and those who thrive
on fishing out false information inimical to the public welfare or that would tend
to make the people unduly worried or jittery will be arrested and detained.” In
this instance, the rumors alleged that the constabulary was conducting house-
Primitivo Mijares
Page Z9 6
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
to-house night-time searches in various "zones” around Manila, a practice
reminiscent of the Japanese Occupation. Subsequently, the rumors were
confirmed, but not in the Philippine news media. In another instance,
Baldomero Olivera, a veteran newspaperman and founder of the Philippine
News Service, was arrested and detained for two months for delivering some
offhand, humorous comments about President and Mrs. Marcos. He was
charged but never tried for "spreading rumors." Olivera actually resorted to
"humor-mongering."
One of the worst cases of rumor-mongering that I have had to handle
involved the publication of a parody of "Promotheus Unbound" in the Focus-
Philippines weekly news-magazine. It was a poem of 22 lines. The first letter
every line read "MARCOS DIKTADOR HITLER TUTA" downward. The piece
was obviously intentionally written for the Focus-Philippines to embarrass its
owners, Presidential Assistant Tuvera and his wife, Kerima. The news-
magazine was already in circulation two days before the planted poem was
"discovered." Of course, it was not a "discovery" at all. The clever author(s)
really made sure that the Focus-Philippines edition containing the parody was
already in circulation before calls were made to students at the University of
Santo Tomas, then to the MAC, DPI , OCR, and Focus offices to "protest" the
publication of "a slur against the President." The "rumor" spread like wildfire. In
this particular case, all the President's men coordinated their efforts to retrieve
all copies of the Focus magazine. Only about 100 copies could be recovered.
It was the best-selling edition of the Focus magazine.
On his own, Secretary Tatad fired off a memorandum to the President
suggesting that the Focus magazine be closed down. Tatad likewise called me
up and suggested that I recommend to the President that the magazine's
certificate of authority to operate be revoked. When I took up the matter with
Marcos, he vetoed my proposal to close down Focus magazine. However, he
directed me to "post censors in every mass media office." From now on, he
said, we will be strict again. It was evident that the thick hide of the dictator has
been pricked.
Focus magazine was actually given a permit by the defunct Mass Media
Council in November, 1 972, to operate as a semi-government organ. Of course,
Tuvera had made sure earlier that Marcos gave prior approval to the magazine
project. It was Marcos’ approval that was taken to mean by the MMC as a
directive to approve the publication of Focus. Later, however, Tuvera changed
his mind and had his wife, Kerima, publish the Focus as a private undertaking,
taking in commercial advertising. But Tuvera refused to change his mind about
the printing of Focus for free by the National Media Production Center.
There was no justification for Focus, other than the greed of the T uveras to
make use of government printing facilities for private ends, to masquerade as
a government organ. The martial regime already has its own official mass
media agencies which are supported with government fund through the
Department of Public Information and the NMPC. A plethora of newspapers,
magazines and broadcasting stations outwardly owned by government
agencies compete with "private" media in dishing out propaganda to the
general public. The DPT's Bureau of National and Foreign Information
publishes such periodicals as The Republic and Philippine Prospect. The
National Media Production Center regularly issues Philippines Today,
Primitivo Mijares Page Zhl
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Government Report and Philippine News. T uvera edits Government Report for
the NMPC.
There is one government television channel (TV4) and half a dozen radio
stations operated by the Philippine Broadcasting Service, a unit of the DPI’s
Bureau of Broadcast, and one station operated by the Voice of the Philippines,
a unit of the NMPC.
In the United States, the two major propaganda organs of the martial regime
are the Filipino Reporter and the Manila Journal. The Filipino Reporter was
originally New York-based and started out by former Manila Times military
reporter Libertito Pelayo as an independent organ. However, economic
necessity compelled him to sell out his Western edition to the martial regime.
Both the Filipino Reporter and the Manila-Journal are directly controlled as to
financing and editorial content by Gov. Benjamin "Kokoy" Romualdez. Funds
for these two organs are raised most of the time by Kokoy from President
Marcos' contingent fund and from the Department of Public Information. The
Manila-Journal, which, like the FR, is mailed free to former balikbayans in the
United States, is printed in the Philippines in the printing facilities of the defunct
Manila Chronicle and airlifted free of charge every week to San Francisco.
From time to time, subsidies are dished out by Kokoy to various Filipino
publications in the United States. The Philippine Mail in Salinas and the Bataan
News in Sacramento, California, are among the part-time organs of
propaganda of the dictatorship in the Philippines.
To their credit, the independent Philippine News, published by Alex
Esclamado in the West Coast; the Philippine Times, published by Edwin Olivera
in the mid-west; and the monthly Ningas Cogon, published by Loida Nicolas-
Lewis in the East Coast, have rejected overtures that they receive funding from
the martial law regime.
There are other radical news-sheets published in the United States which
the long arm of Marcos' operatives in the U.S. have not dared attempt to buy
out. Among them are Silayan , monthly of the National Committee for
Restoration of Civil Liberties in the Philippines; Tambuli, of Chicago, a four-
page newsletter of the Union of Democratic Filipinos; Pahayag, of Honolulu, a
12-page mimeographed monthly of a group of concerned Filipinos and
Americans; Philippine Information Bulletin, bi-monthly of Cambridge, Mass.;
Ang Katipunan, of Oakland; Bangon, of Ann Arbor, Michigan; Makibaka,
Connecticut periodical of the NCRCLP; and Tanikala, New York bi-monthly
of the National Association of Filipinos in the U.S.
A radical underground press continues to flourish back home in the
Philippines, while the official and anointed "private" media pamper the Marcos
dictatorship. Declared illegal by the dictatorial regime, progressive groups have
become even more prolific and viotriolic in the secret newspapers, newsletters
and leaflets condemning Marcos as being dictatorial, pointing out the future of
martial law programs and calling for nationwide resistance.
The most open of the anti-martial law newssheets came out originally under
the logo of "Various Reports," a mimeograph newssheet published by the
Association of Major Religious Superiors. When I was chairman of the MAC, I
chose not to interfere in the affairs of the major religious superiors, as I found
their product most interesting and informative. However, when Brig. Gen. Hans
Menzi, the former presidenial aide, assumed the chairmanship of the newly-
Primitivo Mijares Page Zh 8
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
established Print Media Council, he ordered the AMRSP to "cease publication
immediately" because "Various Reports" did not have a permit from Menzi's
council. The AMRSP bowed to Menzi's demands, but came out with a similar
product, under the logo this time of "Sign of the Times." The new product was
no different from the original one. The AMRSP served notice it would not under
any circumstance capitulate to Menzi's demands.
The following have appeared off and on as underground publications since
the advent of martial law: Bangon, The Report, The Rebel, Pandayan, Ang
Taong Bayan, Bagong Moog ng Maynila, Ka-lngat Kayo, Taliba rig Bayan,
(Herald of the Country), Ulos (Spear), Citizen and Tinig ng Masa, Liberation,
Pilipinas. Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win, People's Courier and Clenched Fist.
These periodicals, as well as chain letters and xeroxed copies of banned
materials, travel national and international networks as their readers take
seriously the request in the logo-types, "pass this newsletter on to a friend after
reading." In the Philippines, the papers are distributed in markets, on campuses
and even door to door, despite the threat of at least six months imprisonment
for possession of them.
Today, media ownership is more concentrated than before martial law. To
mention a few; The Daily Express, Evening Express, Pilipino Express, Express-
week magazine as well as TV Channels 4 and 9 together with more than a
dozen radio stations of theKanlaon Broadcasting System (KBS) are controlled
by Ambassador Roberto S. Benedicto and Enrique P. Romualdez, the First
Lady's cousin. An affiliate, TV Channel 2 of the Baranggay Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC), operates from the same KBS center.
The ownership structure of TV Channel 13 is nebulous but TV Channel 7
is controlled by Gualberto Duavit, a former presidential aide.
Bulletin Today and its sister publications, Liwayway. Bannawag, and
Bisaya, are owned by General Menzi, a one-time senior Presidential aide-de-
camp.
Times-Journal and its other periodicals are owned by Governor Benjamin
Romualdez, the First Lady's brother.
Even Kerima Polotan Tuvera, the First Lady's official biographer, has her
own string of mass media establishments in addition to Focus-Philippines.
Kerima owns the Orient News, a Chinese-English daily, for circulation in the
Chinese community, and the Evening Post, an afternoon daily.
The present ownership of mass media facilities in the Philippines leads to
one more official rationale (because there are several) for the harsh treatment
of journalists and publishers upon the declaration of martial law. Marcos had
said that it was necessary to dismantle the oligarchic structure of the old
society media and to create a government-supervised new society media. He
claimed that the old society press was too sick to heal. He said it was beyond
reform and had to be replaced completely. Well, it was completely replaced by
his cronies Roberto S. Benedicto, Gilberto Duavit, Kokoy and the Tuveras.
These groups have constituted themselves into neo-oligarchic publishers.
If the media industry under the dictatorial regime in the Philippines is in a
mess, the lot of the practising journalist is worse. Although there have been
assurances against future arbitrary arrest, any journalist is still exposed to the
danger of being arrested on some grounds entirely unrelated to his professional
Primitivo Mijares Page Zhh
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
undertaking. Filipino newsmen have not forgotten that those journalists who
were picked up in the dead of night when martial law was imposed, were
arrested allegedly for “being participants or for having given aid and comfort in
the conspiracy to seize political and state power in the country and to take over
the government by force.” Yet, not one of them was ever charged with such an
offense. The government has had to release them provisionally.
No wonder, the International Press Institute, at its convention in Zurich in
May. 1975. unanimously withdrew the recognition accorded the Philippine
National Committee on the ground that a free press does not exist in the
Philippines.
The Institute waited for three years before taking such drastic action, hoping
year after year that the press situation in the country would improve. It deferred
action on the Philippine case at its Jerusalem General Assembly in June of
1 973 and again at the Kyoto General Assembly in May of 1 974. In 1 975, it was
constrained to suspend the Philippine Committee. Juan Quijano reported that
the IPI came to the conclusion that its hope that the situation of the Philippine
press would improve has become evanescent.
For martial law is antithetical to a free press - it cannot coexist and it has
not co-existed in the Philippines for the past four years. Like all other freedoms
which are our birthright under the Constitution, it can never be truly restored so
long as martial law continues.
Four former presidents of the National Press Club are on the forefront of
the struggle for restoration of democracy in the Philippines. They are Antonio
Zumel, who is out there in some dark hideaway in the suburbs of Manila,
grinding out the underground press; Eddie Monteclaro, who is on self-imposed
exile in Chicago where he works as copy editor for the Sun Times', Amando
Doronilla, who chose to settle down in Australia and work for the Sydney Herald
after being given a travel permit in late 1975; and I, in my humble way, in the
West Coast.
The four of us are ranged against a friend, Teodoro F. Valencia, who has
tried very hard to be a Marcos defender in hopes, perhaps, of succeeding me
in having that vital direct access to the President. He has not gained any
success, I understand, despite the fact that he has become the chairman of the
Broadcast Media Council.
Valencia, like any other practising media man in the Philippines, is still
subject to censorship as originally ordained by Marcos when he imposed
martial law.
The fact that censorship is still a bludgeon held by Dictator Marcos over the
heads of media men in the Philippines is indicative of his own sense of
instability. Censorship, an ancient sage once said, is always a symptom of a
frightened leader.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 300
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Chapter XIII
American Tax Dollar Abets R.P. Repression
The nascent imperial dynasty in a country for which the United States had
spent billions of hard-earned tax dollars for training in a democratic self-
government will continue to nag the conscience of America.
Martial rule by Marcos in the Philippines continues, and can only continue,
because of the direct and indirect support that the United States government -
as distinguished from the more sensible American people who contribute their
hard-earned money in taxes paid to Uncle Sam's coffers - extends to the
Marcos - military dictatorship. And so, for as long as. there is martial law in the
Philippines, with its continuing repression of dissent and of the press, torture of
political prisoners, and reallocation of the country’s resources to a few families,
so long must the conscience of America be tortured.
The sad and unfortunate fact is that not only were the billions of dollars and
46 years of investment to make the Philippines a show window of American
democracy in Asia wasted, but that millions more of dollars are still being
wasted by the United States government on the dictatorial martial regime of
Marcos. For, verily, a refined Watergate scandal in the Philippines continues to
foist itself upon the hapless Filipinos, deriving strength and vital support from
the fact that hard-earned American tax dollars are propping up the martial
regime in Manila.
While the United States assistance to the Philippines, started as early as
1946 to the newly-independent democratic Republic and still being continued
in increased amounts to the Marcos dictatorship, is not really much in terms of
dollars and compared to assistance extended to other countries around the
globe, the fact that it is given at all, with the undeniable implication that its grant
is a direct support of the repressive martial regime, is what really counts; it
serves as a stabilizing factor to the authoritarian regime, while it deters any
massive opposition that could compel Marcos to restore democracy in the
Philippines.
It is heartening to note though that the United States Congress has started
a review of the foreign assistance program of Uncle Sam. As a result of
exhaustive investigations conducted by its Committee on International
Relations, the full House of Representatives voted in mid-September, 1974, to
tack on to the $2. 87-billion foreign aid bill a provision that no economic aid be
provided “to the government of any country which engages in a consistent
pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, including
torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged
detention without charges, or other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty
and the security of a person.” Although the Philippines was not
mentioned by name, it was very evident that the Marcos regime’s repressive
character was very much in the mind of the members of the House who voted
144 to 155 in favor of the provision as introduced by Rep. Tom Harkin (D-lowa).
The Subcommittee on International Organizations of the House
International Relations Committee held extensive hearings on suppression of
Primitivo Mijares Page 3 Ol
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
human rights under the Marcos military regime last June.
The U.S. Senate tacked on to its own version of the Foreign Aid bill more
stringent restrictions that would deny U.S. aid to countries practising the
internment of political prisoners.
But this terrible blow to Marcos’ face by both chambers of the U.S.
Congress may not have its desired effects at the moment. Marcos is a very
shrewd man.
He believes that his newly-established alliance with Mao Tse Tung elevates
him to a position of strength in bargaining for better terms on the Philippines-
United States defense arrangements. Mr. Marcos realizes that the U.S.
government, whether it likes it or not, is in no position to “de-stabillze” his martial
regime, at least not until after the American presidential elections of 1976.
Mr. Marcos has taken cognizance, however, of the new portentous wind
blowing in the U.S. Congress concerning the reexamination of U.S. aid policy
towards the Philippines. It was precisely in anticipation of this reexamination
task by this congressional committee, that Mr. Marcos started beaming
messages all over that hehimself wants such a reexamination of all Philippine
treaties with the United States. He had hoped that, since he himself had already
called for the restudy, the U.S. Congress would no longer do that. At the same
time, Mr. Marcos started preparing the minds of the Filipino people to the
possibility of a cutback or complete denial of U.S. aid to the Philippines. His
gambit is to claim later, if aid be really cut or denied, that he himself had asked
for such action from the U.S. government because aid was being given under
terms so iniquitous and derogatory to the self-respect and dignity of a free
country as the Philippines is. Marcos is a master of tne strategy of preemptive
strike.
The regime's propaganda line was to the effect that the American assistance
to the Philippines is not really much, only about $100 million a year. The line
now being mouthed by Manila's press under the baton of President Marcos
himself, is that the $100 million U.S. aid is less than FIVE (%) per cent of the
country's export income, and could easily be made up for by resources
available to the Philippines, if finally cut off. In any case, so the propaganda line
goes, the major portion of U.S. aid goes anyway to salaries and maintenance
of U.S. personnel administering the aid; that U.S. aid personnel are in turn given
access to high councils of government, with opportunities to spy, meddle and
spread gossips and rumors disruptive of the aims of the authoritarian regime.
In my testimony before the Fraser committee, I also raised the following
points respecting the misuse of U.S. aid to the Philippines:
XI. DICTATORSHIP ENTRENCHED BY U.S. AID
Aside from plundering an entire nation, the conjugal dictatorship is also
misappropriating United States military and other assistance to get itself
entrenched in power and for its personal glorificaticn.
As a matter of fact, the continuing grant of U.S. military and economic
assistance to the Philippine government is underscored boldly by the martial
regime as an unmistakable show of support and endorsement by Uncle Sam
for the authoritarian regime. Not only is American aid misrepresented to show
American support for the dictatorship, but the financial and material aid that
pour in from the U.S. are actually misused directly or indirectly by the regime.
Primitivo Mijares Page 30Z
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
1) American-made weapons and ammunition, given as assistance or sold
on credit or paid for U.S. financial aid, are used by the regime of President
Marcos to maintain a large standing army whose main function is to insure the
stability of his rule by repressing political opponents and business rivals.
2) A greater portion of U.S. military assistance is supposed to be allocated
for counterinsurgency projects. But they actually go to the maintenance
of the Presidential Security Command, now the most powerful
command in the country's armed establishment, and the Philippine
Constabulary. Both commands are Mr. Marcos’ main armed forces units
of repression; they maintain the military stockades where thousands of
political prisoners are held without charges, without trial. The
Presidential Security Command provides the manpower recruits for the
national secret police which Mr. Marcos caused his chief security man,
Major General Fabian Ver, to organize by virtue of a decree, entitled the
“Internal Security Act.”
3) In the field of economic assistance, agricultural and infrastructure
projects funded with U.S. aid are awarded to contractors with whom President
Marcos or his front men are tied up. In road construction, for instance, the big
projects are awarded to the Construction and Development Corporation of the
Philippines, a multi-million peso contracting firm where the front man of Mr.
Marcos is a Mr. Rodolfo Cuenca.
4) In health, education and cultural fields, which are funded in parts of U.S.
aid program, only projects that improve the image of the dictatorship in the eyes
of the people get priorities.
5) In the purchase of medicines by the Department of Health, part of which
is funded with U.S. aid, the greater bulk of the purchase order, about 60
percent, goes to the United Drug Company, the biggest pharmaceutical firm in
the country which is owned by the front man of the President in the drug
business, a Mr. Joselito Campos.
6) A glaring example of the misuse of US aid is the case of the Hercules C-
130 cargo plane given by the USAF to the Philippine Air Force. Hardly had it
been turned over, when the provincial resthouse of the Marcoses in Barrio Olot,
Tolosa, Leyte province, was burned down by disgruntled barrio folks. Among
those who set the sprawling resthouse afire were people who were practically
evicted from their small lots which surround the Olot resthouse; their properties
were forcibly purchased from them so the vacation compound could be
expanded. The compound was burned down in late May. Since the birthday
celebration of the First Lady (on July 2, 1974) was just a month away, the
resthouse had to be reconstructed at all cost; Mrs. Marcos has already invited
her international jetset friends, headed by Mrs Christina Ford. So, construction
materials, (e.g. cement, hollow blocks, and lumber, etc.) were airlifted from
Manila to Tacloban City, which was the nearest airport to Barrio Olot, by
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Philippine Air Force planes, mainly the C-130 Hercules plane, in order to
complete construction of the destroyed area on time for the birthday bash.
The same Hercules plane ferries the numerous security men who go with
the First Lady on her trips abroad. The same plane was used to ferry numerous
billboards and printed materials extolling the virtues of the conjugal leadership
for the inauguration of the Philippine Center in New York last November (1 974).
7) The female half of the conjugal dictatorship is responsible for the failure
of most foreigners, especially top officials, to detect the dictatorial nature of the
regime. It was her decision that, whenever U. S. government officials and
newspapermen come to Manila, the uniformed sentry guards at the
Malacanang barricades should be removed, barricades and all; only when they
leave are these signs of martial rule restored again.
The National Coordinating Committee of the Anti-Martial Law (Philippines)
Movement came out recently with a very-well researched paper, entitled. "The
Logistics of Repression," which was actually a report on the volume, forms, and
functions of the U.S. military assistance to the martial regime of Marcos. It was
published initially in the Philippines Information Bulletin, Vol. Ill, Nos. 2 and 3.
July 1975. I am reproducing the report hereunder with approval, but I have
taken the liberty of editing it in some portions.
General Considerations. Ever since the imposition of martial law in the
Philippines in September 1972, American policymakers have suffered from an
inability to clarify exactly what a stance of “non-interference” in the internal
matters of the Philippines means in practical terms. Thus the contingent of the
Department of Defense during the Congressional hearings on the 1974 mili-
tary assistance proposal could apparently find no contradiction in claiming that
while the U.S. government viewed the installation of martial law regimes in
Korea and the Philippines as constituting “internal domestic changes
undertaken by a sovereign nation,” * 1 it was nevertheless actively providing the
Philippines martial law regime with military assistance “designed to provide
mobility, firepower, and communications — the three basic elements required
to combat insurgency forces.” * 2
(* 1 . U.S. Congress, House Appropriations Committee, Hearings Foreign
Assistance and Related Agencies Appropriations for FY 1974 (Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1973), p. 1377.
*2. Ibid., p. 1334.)
But whatever might be the ambiguities of administration policy at the
rhetorical level, at the behavioral level, it is quite clear that the United States is
intimately involved in propping up the Marcos martial law regime. Distinctions
between support for an abstract “central government” engaged in “nation-
building” * 3 and support for the concrete power-group that manages that
government become quite meaningless at the practical level when the latter
utilizes an American-equipped and American-trained army and police to abolish
civil liberties, destroy the opponents, and wage an extremely destructive war
against national minorities seeking redress of their legitimate grievances. Such
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
rhetorical distinctions in fact begin to sound insincere and suspicious when
the levels of military assistance increase — and increase sharply, as we shall
document with the-advent of the dictatorial regime from the levels of aid to the
previous democratic state. *3
*3. See the conceptualization of military aid objectives by Admiral Ray Peet,
ibid., p. 1978.*)
Under conditions of martial law, providing military aid for the purpose of
assisting the Marcos government crush “insurgency” has become a self-
fulfilling prophecy. Contrary to its proclaimed intentions of restoring law and
order, the martial law regime, with its reliance on repression and its familiar
tactic of branding all dissenters — Christian, Muslim, or nationalist — as
“Maoist” or “Maoist-inspired” has actually generated the widespread ex-
pansion of armed, organized opposition inasmuch as this remains the only
effective means of civil dissent possible. Government by armed repression has
not created the desired Kissingerian goals of “order” and “stability” but merely
radicalized the methods and goals of most opposition groups.
Whatever might have been the case prior to martial law, it is quite clear that
“insurgency” — with its connotations of small-scale and uncoordinated brushfire
acts against “public order” which lack widespread popular support — has
become an inappropriate term for the armed resistance to martial law carried
out by the Muslims in the southern Philippines and the New People’s
Army in the north. The Muslim resistance can be fitted into the conceptual
straitjacket of “insurgency” only with great difficulty, As a recent New York
Times news analysis notes, ..” for the sake of perspective, it is worth bearing
in mind that with an estimated 16,000 men under arms, it is roughly twice as
large as the biggest Communist movement going (in Southeast Asia), that of
Thailand.* 4
(*4. New York Times, May 1 1 , 1 975.*)
It now practically covers the whole of central andsouthern Mindanao as well
as the Sulu Archipelago, and as numerous eyewitness journalistic accounts
have consistently confirmed, enjoys widespread popular support. “Insurgency”
has also become an inappropriate description for the anti-martial law activities
of the New People’s Army. The Marcos government itself admitted in early 1 974
that the NPA “had expanded its activities to areas in the Visayan Islands and
Mindanao” * 5 from its pre-martial law base areas in northern and southern
Luzon. (*5. New York Times, January 13, 1974.)
The island of Samar, which lies next door to Leyte, the provincial bailiwick
of Mrs. Imelda Romualdez Marcos, has become, according to the Far Eastern
Economic Review, one of the NPA’s expansion areas. * 6 The number of NPA
regulars, according to the estimates of the Philippine Army, which has
traditionally belittled the size of the insurgent group, has increased since martial
law to 2,266 * 7 with a support-population numbering many thousands
more.
(*6. Bernard Wideman, “A new front for the insurqents,” Far Eastern Economic Review, July
15, 1974.
*7. New York Times, January 13, 1974.*)
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Given these considerations, it is difficult to avoid the judgement that U.S.
military aid to Marcos — like U.S. military intervention in Cambodia in 1970 —
must bear a special responsibility for generating widespread civil disorder and
accelerating the development of civil war, as opposed to merely insurgent,
situations in many parts of the Philippines.
Pre-Martial Law and Post-Martial Law Levels of Official Military Aid
While the policy rhetoric of the administration with respect to the Marcos
regime has been filled with ambiguities and contradictions, there is no
ambiguity about the sharp increases of the levels of aid to the Marcos regime
after martial law:
Military Assistance Program (MAP). Since 1946 grant aid under the Military
Assistance Program has made up the biggest component of the military aid
package to the Philippines. MAP grants to the Philippines were erratically
declining in the period before martial law but began to experience a steady
upsurge after martial law. MAP aid in the three years after martial law came to
$7.8 million more than the total for the three years before martial law, as shown
in the consolidated military aid table on page 5.
Foreign Military Sales Credits (FMS). Prior to martial law the Philippines had
no access to credits extended by the U.S. government for the purchase of arms
and military equipment under the Foreign Military Sales program. "FMS credit,"
according to the Defense Department, "is the bridge leading allied and friendly
countries from dependence on MAP grant aid to that state of self-sufficiency
in which they can purchase for cash the military equipment and services they
require." *8.
(*8. Department of Defense, Foreign Military Sales and Military Assistance Facts
(Washington: Dept, of Defense, 1974), p.4.*)
The "basic policy" regarding the pace of transition, Vice Admiral Ray Peet
asserted during his congressional testimony on May 31 , 1 973, is "to phase out
the grant aid (MAP) as fast as we can in any jountry and convert to FMS
sales."*9
(* 9. Flouse Appropriations Committee, op. cit. p. 993.*)
However, whatever might be the case with other American client-states, the
policy enunciated by Admiral Peet has not been applied to the Philippines. $8.6
million in FMS credit were extended in 1 974 and $7 million in 1 975, but instead
of being balanced, by cuts in the MAP component, as the "basic policy" would
lead us to expect, they were in fact accompanied by an increase of $5 million
in MAP aid in 1975.
Excess Defense Articles. Turning. to the third major component of military
assistance, the transfer of "excess defense articles," we find an even more
noticeable pattern of increase after martial law. Whereas in the three years
before martial law only $7.2 million worth of excess-military equipment was
transferred to the Philippines, in the three years after martial law (FY 1973,
1974, 1975) transfer amounted to $21.8 million. The sharp increase in the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
value of excess defense articles delivered may be interpreted as the successful
outcome of Mr. Marcos' campaign to gain access to surplus military equipment
in Vietnam. As he declared in an interview with the New York Times in early
1973, after the conclusion of the Paris Peace Agreements, “We would
understand a shortage during the Vietnam War. But we certainly would like
access now to what has been declared surplus materials.”* 10
(* 10 . New York Times, April 13, 1973.*)
In 1 973, “the largest single equipment transfers in years” took place, according
to a Washington Post correspondent, with the “United States .. . turning over
16 ‘surplus’ C-123 military transport planes and four C-47 transports.”* 11
(*1 1 . The Washington Post, June 6, 1 973.*)
In 1974, excess defense material turned over to the Philippine? amounted to
$10.7 million above the 1973 figure. In this regard, it is significant that in June
1 974 Admiral Noel Gayler, then commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Forces,
whose office controlled the disposition of Vietnam surplus materials, was
awarded the Philippine Legion of Honor, being specifically cited for
“Exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service rendered to the Republic
of the Philip- pines ... to enhance the development and modernization of the
Armed Forces of the Philippines by accelerating the delivery ofcritical
equipment and supplies . . . ”* 12
(* 12 . Cited in Robert Wenkman, The Great Pacific Rip-Off (Chicago: Follett Publishing
Company, 1974), p.134. Underscoring ours.*)
Ship Transfers. Like the value of excess defense articles, that of ship
transfers, the fourth major component of the military aid package, experienced
a sharp increase after martial law: whereas the value of naval vessels
transferred to the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard came to $1.8 million in
1972, in 1973 it came to $22.8 million. It is significant that although only about
$4 million worth of naval vessels were originally programmed for transfer in FY
1973 during the congressional hearings of June 1972, *13
(* 13 . U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Hearings, Foreign Assistance and Related
Programs Appropriations, FY 1973 (Washington, D.Cj Govt Printing Office, 1972), p. 1062.)
the final value of ships transferred during that fiscal year came to almost six
times that figure and represented what was perhaps the most expensive yearly
transfer of naval vessels in the postwar history of American military assistance
to the Philippines. The unforeseen increase in naval material assistance was
most probably triggered by the need to support the Marcos regime s campaign
to suppress the Muslim resistance to martial law which erupted in the Sulu
Archipelago and Southern Mindanao in late 1972 — a campaign which has
relied heavily on naval supply operations, naval interdiction of rebel
movements, and the launching of marine-type offensive operations.
Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG). Military assistance in the form
of the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group (JUSMAGP) was valued at $1 .7 million
in 1975, up from $1.4 million in 1972. The number of American military and
civilian advisors was equal to that prior to martial law - 49 to 50 military men
and nine civilians. *14
(* 14 . See House Appropriations Committee, op. cit., p. 980.*)
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Stability in this case was in fact a gain, especially in view of the regional cutback
in MAAG strength stemming in part from congressional pressure: MAAG
personnel in the East Asia-Pacific region were reduced by about 28% between
1972 and 1974.*15 JUSMAGP has in fact been one of the better staffed military
advisory missions in the world. In 1974 it was the 10th largest in size of 47
country missions, being larger than any country mission in Latin America and
Europe and bigger than the teams in, among other U.S. allies, Japan,
Indonesia. Australia, and Pakistan.* 16
(*15. Ibid)
(*16. Ibid.)
Officer Training. The only component of the military aid package to decline
relative to pre-martial law levels was officer training. Whereas $1.1 million in
MAP funds was earmarked for the training of 453 Filipino officers in 1 972, $899
thousand was allocated for 400 officers in 1973 and $631 thousand for 292
officers in 1974. The post-martial law cutbacks had little practical significance,
however, inasmuch as the Philippines has traditionally had. an extremely
swollen annual contingent in the MAP training program for foreign officers.
Between 1950 and 1973, a total of 14,745 Filipino officers were trained under
MAP, making the Philippines the eighth largest contributor of 72 foreign
countries involved in the program.* 17
(* 17. Department of Defense, op. cit. p.1 1 .*)
Indeed, even with the reduction of Filipino trainees in 1973 and 1974, the
Philippine contingent trained during these two years was the sixth largest of 47
participating national contingents — outstripping even such traditional MAP-
training program stalwarts as Taiwan, Turkey, Greece, and Japan.
Conclusions. Comparing the. levels of total U.S. military assistance in the
three years after martial law, we see an increase of about 100% in the latter
period, from $60.2 million in FY 1970-72 to $118.8 million in 1973-75. The
increase in military aid was particularly sharp in 1973, the first year of martial
law: total aid for that year ($45.3 million) more than doubled the 1972 figure
($1 8.5 million). It is interesting to point out in this connection that although only
$28.5 million in total military aid for FY 1973 was originally proposed by the
Defense Department during the congressional hearings in June 1 972,* 18
(*18. Senate Appropriationd Cpmmittee, op. cit., p.1050)
the final figure was some 60% greater. Increases of such a scale are not
casually decreed, and the motivation behind the additional aid in this case was
quite clearly the need to support the military effort to impose the Marcos
regime's declaration of martial law on September 22, 1 972.
Cross-National Comparison of Aid Levels in FY 1973 and FY 1974
In a cross-national comparison of levels of U.S. military assistance the
significance of the latter for the Marcos regime becomes even sharper. In FY
1 973 and FY 1 974 the total amount of military aid to the Philippines was:
— the twelfth largest of 66 national allocations and contained the eight largest
allocation for MAP aid (the major component of the assistance package)
— larger than the total allocation for Africa
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
— larger than any allocation for a Western European country, including that for
Spain
— larger than the allocation for Brazil, the largest recipient in Latin America,
and larger than the combined totals of aid for the "southern cone" countries,
Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile
— In East Asia and the Pacific, larger than the allocations for Japan and
Indonesia, and greater than the combined allocation for Japan, Malaysia,
Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka.
Clearly, then the United States government has, in matters of military
assistance, granted the Philippines an extremely favorable treatment, contrary
to the Marcos government's propaganda claims - aimed specifically at the U.S.
Congress - that the United States has treated it as some sort of "poor cousin."
U.S. Military Assistance and Counter-Insurgency
American defense officials have at times been quite candid about the
purposes of military aid. The stated objective of propping up the "external-
defense" capability of the Philippines against the "Red Chinese threat" which
was so frequently cited in the 1960s has given way in the seventies to rhetoric
about improving the "internal-defense" capability of the Philippine Armed
Forces. Thus Admiral Thomas Moorer, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, stated quite frankly during the congressional hearings on the 1 974 military
assistance proposal that:
The security assistance material program ... are designed to provide
mobility, firepower, and communications - the three basic elements required to
combat insurgency forces. We are providing helicopters and transport aircraft,
machine guns, recoilless rifles, and other weapons, together with long-range
communications equipment. *19
(*19. House Appropriations Committee, op. cit. pi 280.*)
An examination of the types of technical assistance and weaponry reaching
the Philippine Aimed Forces during the last three years would more than bear
out Admiral Moorer's assertion.
JUSMAGP and the formation of Battalion Combat Teams. The Battalion
Combat Team (BCT) is the basic Philippine military counterinsurgency
force. Composed of about 600 men, the BCT grew out of the anti-Huk campaign
of the early fifties with American advisory, and operational assistance .*20
(* 20 . For the close operational role of U.S. military officials in the anti-Huk campaign, see
Edward Lansdale, In the Midst of Wars (New York Harper and Row, 1 972 ), passim.
Unlike MAAG's in most other countries, the role of JUSMAGP in the Philippines
has not been limited to being a liaison for weapons aid. After martial law the
advisory and operational role of JUSMAGP in the formation of BCT's appears
to have intensified. As Senator Strom Thurmond reported to the Senate Armed
Services Committee on February 22, 1 975, after a tour of U.S. military facilities
in the Asia/Pacific area, "The mission of JUSMAGP is to assist the Philippines
Armed Forces in attaining the capability to maintain internal security . . . During
recent years the primary effort of JUSMAGP has been to assist the Philippine
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Army in increasing the number of combat battalions." *21 In this connection the
Philippine Army more than doubled in size, from 1 6,000 men in 1 972 to 35,000
men in 1974. *22 JUSMAGP assistance in this "beefing up" process has,
according to international press reports, *23 included visits to and observation
of battlefield areas in Mindanao, the seat of armed Muslim resistance to martial
law.
Weaponry and Counterinsurgency. The more important weapons and
weapons-systems delivered to the Philippines after the imposition of martial law
which have been monitored by the press and various military-surveillance
agencies, have been especially suited forcounterinsurgency activities.
M-1 6s and high-powered recoilless rifles are, of course, the basic weapons
of U.S. -trained counterinsurgency forces. In 1 973 the Philippine Army received
at least 13,770 new rifles as part of U.S. military assistance * 24 - enough to
equip 33 new combat battalions. These were sent to the Philippines as part of
the FMS program or as commercial sales.*25 Also tunneled to the Marcos
regime were Vietnam-proven M-79 grenade launchers and M-60 machine
guns .*26 Since 1974 the Defense Department has been aiding the Marcos
regime setup, with FMS credits and in cooperation with Colt Industries, an $8
million M-1 6 factory in the Philippines patterned after arms- "co-production"
arrangements in South Korea and Singapore.*27
(*21. Senator Strom Thurmond, Asia/Pacific: Policy and Forces: Report to the Committee on
Armed Services) Washington, D.C.: Govt Printing Office, 1975), p. 40. _
*22. Institute of Strategic Studies, The Military Balance, 1973-74, and 1973-75 (London:
Institute of Strategic Studies, 1973 and 1974).
*23. Sunday Times (London), April 15, 1973.
*24. Department of State, “Military Assistance to the Government of the Philippines,” (xeroxed
material submitted to the Subcommittee on International Relations, Plouse "Foreign
Affairs Committee) June 1975 (hereafter cited as Department of State, “Military
Assistance. . .”).
*25. Department of State, “Selected U.S. Military and Police Exports, 1974” (xerox).
*26. New York Times, April 2, 1 973.
*27. U.S. Congress, Plouse Committee on Foreign Affairs, Plearings, Fiscal 1975 Foreign
Assistance Request (Washington: Govt. Printing Office, 1974), p. 354.
Arms self-sufficiency is supposed to be the goal of this "co-production"
venture, but its most likely effect may instead be of the traditional allocation for
small arms in the military aid package for use in the acquisition of more
sophisticated and heavy weapons-systems.
Vietnam-type fragmentation bombs and napalm have persistently been
reported by reliable sources as being in use in the fighting against guerrillas.
Le Monde correspondent Patrice de Beer asserted that such bombs were used
in combat against the New People’s Army in the Jones area of Isabela province
in April 1973.*28 These allegations must be seen as especially serious when
they come from officials of Philippine government or officers of the Philippine
army. In February 1973 a Filipino consul in Hawaii publicly admitted the use of
napalm against "insurgents. *29 " According to an "Associated Press" report
from Manila on February 1, 1975:
(*28. Le Monde, April 13,1973; on the use of fragmentation bombs in Mindanao, see Brian
Phelan, “Spectre of Jihad,” Far Eastern Economic Review, May 13, 1973, p. 29.
*29. Ben Kerkvliet, “Statement for the Friends of the Filipino People,” in House Committee
on Foreign Affairs, op. cit., p. 775.)
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Col. Rudolfo Caniaso, commander of the 32nd Infantry Battalion in
Pigcawayan, North Cotabato Province, and Esteban Doruelo, former
Pigcawayan mayor and head of the town's home defense unit, had said that
they watched from a spotter helicopter January 22 as Air Force jets dropped
napalm on buildings suspected of being rebel warehouses near Tumbao.
Colonel Caniaso also said that during another air strike, his troops 500 yards
from the target area felt the heat of the bombs. *30
Proceeding to the heavy weapons systems supplied by the United States
under the MAP program, we find that whereas only 38 units of the 13 major
weapons types were furnished the Marcos regime in the three years before
martial law, 134 units were provided in the three years after martial law. *31
These weapons systems are particularly suited for counter-guerrilla warfare.
"Huey" helicopters, critical components of the helicopter-based anti-guerilla
warfare developed by the U.S. in Vietnam have been among the choice
weapons grants to the Philippines. From FY 1973 to FY 1975, 27 helicopters
were transferred to the Philippine Armed Forces. *32
The M-113 APC (armed personnel carrier) has been described by the
standard reference on weapons system as among the "most successful
vehicles" in U.S. army service, having "proved especially valuable in the special
circumstances of the Vietnam War." *33 In FY 1973, 20 of these vehicles
reached the Philippine Army. *34
U.S. -supplied C-47 transport planes converted into gunships were
observed in operation during the campaign against Muslim resistance groups
in Jolo in early 1 974. *35
(*30. New York Times, February 2, 1975.
* 31 . Department of State, “Military Assistance. .
* 32 . Department of State, “Military Assistance. .
* 33 . Jane’s Weapons Systems 1972-73 (London: Jane’s Yearbooks, 1972), p. 278.
* 34 . Department of State, “Military Assistance. .
* 35 . New York Times, February 22, 1974.*)
The U.S. has since provided the Marcos regime with transport aircraft
which are not only more suitable for the efforts to supply troops fighting in
Mindanao, some 500 miles south of Manila, but also more easily convertible
than the C-47 into close-support armed aircraft for counter-insurgency
operations. 1 6 surplus C-1 23 planes were transferred to the Philippines Armed
Forces ini 973.*36 (* 36. Washington Post, June 6, 1973*)
Asked why such a quantity of C-1 23’s was earmarked for the Philippines, the
Defense Department spokesman replied, quite lamely, that "One need only to
look at a map of the Philippines to see the need for air and sea transport. "*37
(*37. Flouse Appropriations Committee, op. cit., p. 1154. These aircraft were
erroneously referred to as C-1 1 9’s.)
The real reasons, we suggesl, had more to do with the massive operations that
had to be mounted to supply the Philippine Army in the southern Philippines,
where Muslim opposition to martial law had escalated to large-scale resistance
by mid-1973. Moreover, the uses of large cargo craft in anti-guerilla warfare,
where no enemy air opposition exists, have not been limited to transport. The
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
use of modern transport planes in Vietnam "for interdiction and suppression of
enemy ground attack has proved very effective," according to the standard
reference on. military aircraft.*38 "Such gunships have the advantage of long
endurance and an ability to carry a large load of ammunition needed to locate
and attack enemy material and personnel." *39
An $8 million military loan from the Export-Import Bank enabled the Marcos
government to acquire four C-130 Hercules troop transports in 1973,*40 "The
U.S. and other countries," a Lockheed ad asserts, "buy Hercules because it
can do a lot of things other planes can't". Indeed the value of the C-130 does
not lie only in its transport uses but also in its easy convertibility into a "close
support" aircraft for counterinsurgent operations. Introduced to service in.
Vietnam in 1 970 the armed version of the Hercules can be equipped with "four.
. .multi-barrel cannons and 7.62 mm. Mini-guns . . . searchlights and sensors,
including forward-looking infra-red target acquisition equipment and direct-view
image intensification sights." *41
Like cargo aircraft, the T-28D training plane has also been found to be a
convenient anti-guerilla weapon. It was regularly employed for air strikes
against the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. In FY 1975, 16 of these planes were
transferred to the Philippine Armed Forces. *42.
*38. Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, 1971 (London: Jane’s Yearbooks, 1971), p. 303.
*39. Ibid.
*40. Stockholm Peace Research Institute. Arms Trade Register, (Stockholm: SIPRI, 1975),
p. 18.
*41. Jane's All the World's Aircraft, 1973-74 (London: Jane's Yearbooks, 1973), p. 361 .
*42. Department of State, “Military Assistance. . .”.
Transfers of air and sea craft which are suitable for amphibious warfare
became very salient in fiscal years 1973-75. Eight in-shore patrol craft, 13
landing craft, four amphibious troop carriers, 1 2 LARC-5 reached the Philippine
Armed Forces during this period. Such craft are particularly suitable for naval,
counter-insurgent operations against the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. In FY
1975, 16 of these planes were transferred to the Philippine Armed Forces.*43
Recently, the U.S. Navy was reported by Aviation Week and Space
Technology to have plans to invite the Marcos government to acquire
unspecified numbers of OV-10 aircraft.*44
(*43. Department of State, “Military Assistance..
*44. Aviation Week and Space Technology, Nov. 18, 1974, p. 1 1 .)
The OV-10 is a light ground-support plane, suitable for attacks "on guerilla
groups and other lightly armed forces." *45 It carries four M-60 7.62 mm.
machine guns plus up to 3,100 lbs. of napalm and rockets, and is currently in
service "in counter insurgent missions in Thailand." *46
(*45. Friends of the Filipino People (FFP) Washington Report, Vol. 1 , No. 4, p. 6 (summary of
description of airplane in Air Force Magazine, May 1974, pp. 116-117.
*46. Ibid.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Congressionaliy-Unauthorized Aid to the Marcos Government
In its April 1973 report to the Congress on U.S. military assistance to'the
Philippines, the General Accounting Office repeatedly complained of the
various methods "by which military assistance to the Philippines has been
augmented without Congressional approval or authority." *47 While the GAO
study covered the patterns of U.S. military assistance from 1964 to 1971,
instances of "extra-official** aid have continued during the martial law period.
Use of U.S. Base Facilities. That military assistance has been augmented
without Congressional approval or authority with the use of U.S. base facilities
for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) military and other operations
before martial law was documented in the 1969 hearings on security
agreements with the Philippines, in spite of the weak qualification of DOD
spokesmen that participation in Philippine counterinsurgency operations was
not a "general policy" of U.S. forces stationed in the Philippines. *48 This
section will focus on post-martial law instances of base support.
During the hearings on the 1 975 military assistance proposal, a spokesman
for the State Department admitted that Filipino pilots were partly trained to fly
C-1 23K aircraft by a U.S. Air Force mobile training team at Clark Air Force Base
from October to December 1973.*49 These cargo craft, incidentally, are now
being used in supply operations in the Marcos regime's military campaign
against the Muslims in the southern Philippines.
(* 47 . General Accounting Office, Military Assistance and Commitments in the Philippines
(Washington, D.C.: GAO, 1973), p. 25.
* 48 . U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Flearihgs, U.S. Security Agreements and
Commitments Abroad (Washington, D.C.: Govt. Printing Office, 1971), p. 355.
* 49 . See statement of Linwood Holton, State Department liaison with Con-gress, included
in U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, Hearings, Foreign Assistance and
Related Programs Appropriations, FY1975 (Washington, D.C.: Govt Printing Office,
1973), p. 497.)
In November 1972, two months after the declaration of martial law. an
investigating team of the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee noted
that:
... a squadron of Philippine F-5's has been located at Clark for some months.
Base officials told us that they were pleased to have the opportunity to assist
the Filipinos. They did not seem concerned about the problems which could
arise as a result of the use of a U.S. base for counter-insurgency operations.
Officials in Washington were unable to say whether the F-5's have already been
used for such purposes or whether they would be in the future. *50
(* 50 . U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Staff, Korea and the Philippines
(Washington, D.C.: Govt. Printing Office, 1973) p.40.)
The observation and suspicions of the Senate investigating team evokes
several comments. First, the Philippines has only one squadron of F-5's, which
means that in late 1972 the whole modern fighter component of the Philippine
Air Force (PAF) - most other fighters being obsolete F-36*s — was stationed at
Clark.*5i
(*51 . Institute of Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 1 973-74 (London: Institute of Strategic
Studies, 1973).
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Second, in late 1972 and early 1973 the Marcos government mounted air and
ground offensives against the strongholds of the New People's Army in the
Cagayan Valley — Isabela Area of Northern l_uzon.*52 The NPA consistently
reported that F-5's operating out of Clark conducted bombing raids against
them during that period.
It must be noted that the Cagayan-lsabela strongholds of the NPAare about
250 miles north of Nichols Air Base near Manila, which is the main operational
air base of the PAF. Clark, on the other hand, is less than 200 miles away. The
distance difference of 100 miles is an extremely meaningful one for an
essentially short-range fighter like the F-5, which, fully armed, has a combat
radius of only 21 5 miles/53 The only other Philippine Air Force base in Luzon
is the small Floridablanca Air Base south of Clark. Floridablanca is majnly a
training facility and lacks the support-capacity for maintaining F-5*s, much less
maintain them for full-scale long range air strikes. Given these considerations,
the probability that the air strikes against the NPA in Isabela were mounted from
Clark is rather high.
Joint Combat Exercises. Another way the martial law regime has received aid
unauthorized by Congress is through joint military exercises conducted under
the U.S. -Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty. Not only do Filipino forces receive
free military training in such exercises with American Pacific forces, but the
bulk, if not all. of the operational costs of these maneuvers are paid for by the
U.S. Thus among the reasons cited for the award of the Philippine Legion of
Honor to General Louis H. Wilson, commander in chief of the U.S. Fleet Marine
Force/Pacific in March 1974 was his role in sponsoring joint exercises "with the
Filipino marines without cost to the Philippine government to keep the marines
abreast of developments in amphibian warfare." *54 South East Asia Treaty
Organization (SEATO) exercises led and principally financed by U.S. forces
represent another conduit of extra-official military assistance to the Philippines.
The latest large scale SEATO exercises involving American and Philippine
forces was "Sea Fox", a two-week series of sea war games which was reported
to have taken place in Manila Bay and Subic Bay between February 27 and
March 13, 1975. *55
(*52. For a description of one of these campaigns in late 1972, which included strategic
relocation of peasants, see Flenry Kamm, “Philippine governmentuprooting thousands,”
New York Times, October 20, 1972.
*53. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1971 (London: Jane’s Yearbooks, 1971).
*54. Kerkvliet, op. cit.
*55. Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), Feb. 14, 1975)
Civic Action. One of the most publicized forms of extra-official military aid
to the Marcos regime has been the "civic-action" activities conducted by U.S.
Army Special Forces ("Green Beret") units in the Philippines. "Civic action" is
essentially a euphemism for ideological-support activities for counterinsurgent
military operations - its character being exposed by the fact that it is carried out
by military personnel rather than by civilian professionals. "Winning hearts and
minds" through military civic action has traditionally been undertaken by U.S.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
base personnel in areas adjoining the bases, *56 to which the "Communist
insurgency," according to a Defense Department spokesman in the 1973
congressional hearings, "represents a . . . direct threat." *57 Since 1970 U.S.
civic-action projects began to acquire a more coordinated character and a
nationwide scope. Before 1970 the formal policy on the use of U.S. personnel
in the Philippines was enunciated by James Wilson, deputy chief of mission of
the U.S. Embassy in Manila during the congressional hearings on the United
Spates' base and security arrangements with the Philippines in 1969: "It is a
well-established policy that U.S. military personnef are not authorized to
participate in AFP operations of any kind." *58 This "well-established" policy
was reversed with the arrival of Special Forces teams from Okinawa who went
to work "on a co-equal, integrated basis with the Armed Forces of the
Philippines counterpart (civic-action) team." *59 From October 1970 to May
1974 civic action activities embraced twelve provinces and had direct and
indirect effects on some three million Filipinos. *60
According to a State Department statement regarding the Special Forces'
area of operations, "As a general policy the presence of current
insurgent/dissident activities or a recent history of such activities in the exercise
area automatically eliminates the area from further consideration" for civic
action activities.*6i An examination of the provinces where Special Forces
have been deployed since the beginning of martial law reveals that the general
policy was more the exception than the rule: four of the six provinces where
Green Berets were assigned were clearly either insurgent areas or had a
history of chronic insurgency.
- Zamboanga Province hac been the scene of sporadit guerrilla activity since
1969, and this escalated into large-scale armed resistance immediately
after martial law was declared in September 1972, the period when the
Green Berets were there.
- Bataan and Zambales have been expansion areas for NPA firefights
being recorded there before and after martial law. The most recent proof
of the "high in- surgency" potential of the area two servicemen were killed
in a mysterious encounter with guerrillas or the outskirts of the Subic
Naval Base.
- Capiz, where Special Forces units were assigned in April-May 1973, has
witnessed NPA activities since the imposition of martial law. AFP
intelligence reported NPA "sightings" in the Madya-as Mountain
Range. *62
In January 1 974 the army admitted NPA footholds throughout the island
of Panay, where Capiz is located.*63
(*56. U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, op. cit., p. 355.
*57. Flouse Appropriations Committee, op. cit.
*58. U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, op. cit.
*59. Holton, op. cit. p. 491.
*60. Ibid.
*61. Ibid.)
*62. News from Free Philippines (BMP), Series No. 5, May 16, 1973.
*63. New York Times, January 13, 1973.
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And if we are to believe an informant of The Manchester Guardian
correspondent in the Philippines, encounters between government troops and
insurgents broke out in several towns in Capiz-Tapaz, Calino, and Lambunao
— in the weeks following the departure of the Special Forces. * 64 Samar where
the Green Beretswere present in March-May 1974, was in fact taking on the
character of an expansion area at that very period. According to a report by the
Far Eastern Economic Review, the NPA engaged the Constabulary in a firefight
in the town of Calbiga on May 20, 1 974 — barely 1 5 days after the Green Berets
supposedly terminated their activities on the island. The maturity of NPA organi-
zation in the area was indicated by the report: “On Samar the NPA worksby
approaching farmers and offering instructions on better farming methods,
improving irrigation and giving medical advice. Later, discussions are held on
the rising cost of living and the growing inequalities of Philippine society. At the
time of the ambush, these methods had been so successful that six barrios (in
Calbiga) were completely organized, while two others were so committed that
every man, woman, and child left with the NPA, instead of government
forces.” * 65 Philippine military intelligence must surely have had an inkling of
activity of such maturity before the Green Berets came to the island.
(*64. Robert Whymant, “Whitewash on the Green Berets,’” The Manchester Guardian,
September 11, 1973.
*65. Wideman, op. cit.)
It is therefore difficult not to conclude that the provincial assignments of the
Special Forces were related to the presence of relatively high degrees of
insurgency in a province. One Special Forces officer indeed “acknowledged
that this work could be useful in winning over tribal groups,” according to a New
York Times report. * 66 The orientation toward this goal was highlighted by two
things: First, as a Le Monde report revealed, the Special Forces’ repertoire
contained techniques for the “eradication of superstition” and “identification
customs and traditions” * 67 — the same methods, we might add, which the
Special Forces applied to the Montagnard minorities in the Vietnamese Central
Highlands. Second, the pro-government bias of the Special Forces was at the
practical level, quite explicit inasmuch as the Green Berets and their AFP
counterparts operated on an “integrated” basis, dispelling any notion that the
former constituted a “neutral” force.
Other Extra-Official Military Aid. The GAO 1972 report also complained of
such unofficial forms of military aid as the sending of special military advisory
missions to the Philippines to assist Philippine Armed Forcesunits in such
activities as weather control and communications, noting that the
appropriations for these operations were not included under the
congressionally approved assistance to the Philippines. *68
*66. James Sterba, “U.S. cautious on Marcos’ arms appeals,” New York Times, April 2, 1 973.
*67. Patrice de Beer, “The Philippines: Will the archipelago become another Vietnam?” Le
Monde, April 13, 1973.
*68. GAO, op. cit., pp. 23-24.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
After martial law such forms of aid have apparently continued. A State
Department spokesman revealed, for instance, that 16 U.S. Army
communications technicians have been "in and out of Cefcu City to assist the
Armed Forces of the Philippines in constructing a troposcatter radio installation
on Mount Luay," an activity which is supposed to last. until October 1975. *69
The GAO*s concern with such unofficial forms of aid is understandable - and
not merely from an accounting perspective. Though seemingly harmless and
"scientific," such activities undertaken by U.S. and Philippine military personnel
often serve less edifying purposes. To cite merely one example, U.S. Air Force
crews and technical personnel from the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake,
California, undertook "cloud-seeding" projects in the Philippines in 1969,
ostensibly for humanitarian, "anti-drought" purposes. The Naval Weapons
Center, it was later revealed in the secret Congressional testimony on
"Weather Modification" in March 1974, was involved from 1966 to 1972 in
developing and applying effective rain-making techniques for the creation of
adverse climate conditions along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. *70 Given the
questionable objective of their mentors, it is difficult to fathom exactly what a
Naval Weapons Center representative meant when he asserted during the
hearings that ". . . it appears that the Filipinos will continue to make wise use of
the capability (for cloud-seeding) as it is needed." *71
*69. Holton, op. cit. , pp. 497-498.
*70. U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Oceans and International Environment, Hearings,
Weather Modification (Washington, D.C.: Govt. Printing Office, 1974), pp. 46, 91.
*71. Ibid.
Selected Aspects of the Employment of U>S. Military Aid by the Martial
Law Regime.
Inefficient and Wasteful Use of Military Aid. The most important
conclusion of the GAO study on military assistance to the Philippines in 1972
was the extremely inefficient utilization of MAP-provided equipment by the
Philippine Armed Forces. ". . .major equipment items have been deadlined,"
asserted the report "for maintenance or parts for extensive periods without
prompt and effective followup by command and logistics personnel." *72 Fifty
percent of the 67,000 line items stocked at the Philippine Armed Forces Supply
Center were non-active stock, as were 23% of the 70,000 line items at the
Philippine Naval Supply Center. *73
(*72. GAO, op. cit.)
(*73. Ibid., p.33)
In spite of these findings the Defense Department sharply escalated the
level of aid to the Marcos regime in 1973, especially in the areas of excess
defense articles and ship transfers. The inefficient use of U.S. -provided military
equipment — and thus the waste of American taxpayers' money - has
continued during the martial law period and, in the conditions of armed civil
strife, acquired new but familiar forms. The wasteful application of military
resources by thePhilippine military must, however, be seen not as a local
phenomenon but as one which is intimately connected with the training
in military strategy and tactics it has received from the United States military
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
which has specialized in devising methods to shore up allied dictatorships
through principally military solutions and without regard for questions of popular
legitimacy and popular justice. The American effort in Vietnam will surely rank
as one of the most wasteful applications of men, equipment, and firepower in
military history. And the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) which took over the
U.S. whose efforts failed, not because it could not fight as well as the U.S.
Army, but because it took to heart the American military antidote to guerrilla
war: a “capital-intensive” campaign based on mobility provided by sophisticated
but expensive vehicles and the excessive and indiscriminate employment of
firepower. Even Pentagon analysts now admit that “waste” was one of the most
important habits acquired by the ARVN from the American military ma-
chine.* 74
(* 74 . See the articles by Drew Middleton and others on the military
aspects of the debacle in Vietnam appearing in the New York
Times, March and April 1975.)
The performance of the Pbilirpine Army hears comparison with the ARVN
and the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Foreign correspondents continually confirm the
excessive and indiscriminate use of firepower by the Philippine Army. In
Cotabato Province, one of the main battle areas, "townsfolk and villagers,"
according to a March 27, 1 973 New York Times report, "say that the ponderous
use of equipment that the army already has is killing civilians and destroying
their homes." On June 6, 1973, a Washington Post correspondent reported that
in the island of Basilan, off Zamboanga Province, "residents complain that the
army uses destructive artillery, mortars, bombing, and offshore shelling rather
than face the enemy on the ground." The old, historic town of Maimhung was,
"according to military and civilian travellers. . . now virtually destroyed. A
government leaflet drop tells rebels to surrender because what you see now is
only a game for children compared to battles yet to come." The most widely
publicized case of military "overkill" was the levelling of the city of Jolo, the
historic center of Philippine Muslim culture and former seat of the Sulu
Sultanate, in February 1974. While as the Muslim resistance fighters who
attacked the city partly in response to the military "wasting" of towns like
Maimbupg "the army response - artillery, two boats and naval shelling -
apparently surprised the rebels who had prepared for hand to hand combat."
*75 The massive naval shelling, most witnesses agreed, severely damaged
both the Muslim mosque and the Catholic cathedral and was principally
responsible for the fires that gutted the whole city. *76 Evoking a parallel with
the destruction of Hue in 1968, one correspondent concluded that the
"government helped destroy a town in order to save it" *77
(* 75 . “Battle ruins Moslem town in the Philippines,’’ The Washington Post, March 3, 1974.
* 76 . See "Sulu Situationer”, February 18,1 974, released by a prominent regional news agency
based in Manila and written by a correspondent with long experience in Sulu. This piece
is probably the most extensive report on the battle of Jolo. Available to selected
congressmen on request.
* 77 . “Battle ruins ...’’Washington Post, March 3, 1974.)
The indiscriminate use of firepower is not only morally reprehensible but
also deepens communal bitterness, making a political solution to the war in the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Philippine South — the only solution possible in a war against popularly
supported guerrillas — increasingly difficult to achieve. If the Muslims could still
afford in early 1973 such exercises in magnanimity as releasing captured
soldiers after simply lecturing them on the need to overthrow Mr. Marcos, * 78
the leveling of their villages and historic cities has understandably led some
of them to such excesses as cutting off the heads of their enemies. The
indiscriminate use of sophisticated weapon has also made the link between the
user and supplier more evident to many civilians. One correspondent filed the
following report:
Americans continue to enjoy widespread popularity in the Philippines ... But
in Mindanao, as the fighting continues, there are sometimes other sentiments
.. . One well-educated Christian villager who had evacuated to Zamboanga, for
example, complained about drunken, brawling soldiers in his village, and said,
“Why do you give guns to people who carry on like that.” * 79
(*78. James Sterba, “Filipino army fights frustrating war,” New York Times, March 27,1973.
* 79 . Sterba, “U.S. cautious ...,” New York Times, April 2, 1973.)
U.S. weaponry, military overkill, the widespread, unruly behavior of
occupation troops from the northern Philippines “who do not even start to
understand Muslim dialects” * 80 — these are some of the ingredients of a
familiar brew, and they point to a familiardenouement. There are additional
ingredients.
The "Fort Benning" Mentality.
Officer training has been a traditional component of military assistance to the
Philippines. As noted earlier, since 1950 the Philippines has been the eighth
largest contributor of 72 participants in the MAP training program. The result
has been the socialization of a whole generation of Filipino officers into a
military frame of mind — one might label it the "Fort Benning mentality" — that
the way to deal with popularly supported guerrilla movements is by military
terror. With their reliance on overwhelming conventional force and meaningless
quantitative measurements -of battlefield "progress" like "body counts," *8i
Filipino officers have paralleled their American counterparts in Vietnam. Mr.
Marcos and his high command have continually proclaimed victory over the
Muslim resistance since early 1973, only to see the movement spread to the
whole of central and southern Mindanao. A typical Westmorelandean figure is
General Tranquilino Paranis, army commander for northeastern Luzon - the
prime NPA insurgency area - in 1 973. Paranis claimed in October 1 973 that "he
would require only 60 days to "sanitize" the mountains of Isabela in a big-scale
miliary operation." *82
(*80. Bernard Wideman, “Where peace is a foreign word,” Far Eastern
Economic Review, May 9, 1975, p. 24.
*81. Sterba, op. cit.
*82. Kamm, op. cit.)
This conventional thinking, based mainly on an appreciation of the quantitative
aspects of firepower and a disregard for questions of popular legitimacy, only
increased support for the guerrillas. He repeated the classical Diemist tactic of
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
"strategic relocation," forcibly evacuating 20,000 people from 100 to 200
villages in Isabela Province in a brute effort to separate the guerrilla "fish" from,
the peasant "water". Since 1973 the NPA resistance has spread from Isabela to
surrounding areas like Quezon Province, Mountain Province, parts of the llocos
region, and Nueva Vizcaya.
Military Corruption. One aspect of military corruption has a direct bearing on
U.S. military assistance: the sale ol arms to guerrillas, In spite of their having to
acquire new guns and equipment from the Asian smuggling market - in
response to the escalation of U.S. military aid to the Philippine Army - the
Muslim rebels still appev to get many of their military supplies from the
Philippine Army, either through capture or purchase from un-scrupulous
military sources. Informants in Mindanao report that rebel acquisition of arms
from military suppliers is quite common. A Time correspondent recorded an
instance of this when he visited a Muslim guerrilla group on Basilan Island in
early 1973:
I asked how Ambihal's men obtained their weapons and whether they were
being helped by any foreigners. "You are the first foreigner we have seen,"
Ambihal (the group leader) replied. He had bought his own rifle, he added, from
someone connected with the Philippine Army. It has cost him 3,000 pesos
($450). the equivalent of more than two years' wages. *83
While the sale of U.S. -provided weapons lo the other side has apparently
not yet reached the scale of the trade in Cambodia before the fall of the Lon
Nol government, it is likely to increase with the piling up of excess weaponry as
the levels of U.S. military assistance to the Philippine Armed Forces increase.
Such corruption indicates the character of the regime that the U.S. is
supporting.
Arming of Bandit Groups. One final aspect of the employment of U.S. military
assistance is the fact that some of it is utilized to arm what are euphemistically
termed "Barrio Self-Defense Units" (BSDU) or "Local Self-Defense Forces"
(LSDF). The real character of these paramilitary groups is indicated by a report
carried by the Far Eastern Economic Review:
The LSDF seems likely to heighten the war rather than lessen it. As CoL
R.B. Gutang (head of the Home Defense Brigade in Cotabato) concedes, it is
"very difficult" for the army to control these units, which consist largely of
Christian fanatics (the infamous lla-gas who took the law into their own hands
in 1970 to settle land disputes with Muslims), who are trigger happy and eager
to avenge friends or relatives. Already there have been accusations of
indiscriminate killing of Muslims by the LSDF and of burning of mosques and
Muslim villages. *84
(*83. “The rebels: ‘I learned it from the movies’,” Time, April 16,1973, p. 32.
*84. Phelan, op. cit.)
The uncontrollable character of these group was rightly conceded by the
officer. On June 4, 1 973 a Washington Post correspondent reported the "arrest"
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
in Zamboanga of "five armed Christians . . . carrying, among other things a
severed human ear." Recently, a report carried in the Far Eastern Economic
Review claimed that,
In the Basilan town of Lamitan, the Muslim population is particularly fearful
of a Christian vigilante group called the Mundo Escurro (Black World). Muslims
blame this group for numerous kidnappings, killings, and mutilations. Yet a
commanding officer of anearby battalion claims that the Mundo Escurro is a
law-abiding group whose members often aid his troops in operations. *85
Christian fanatics are apparently not the only recruits to paramilitary forces.
Reliable sources from the Dadiangas area of Cotabato Province has
consistently claimed that a group of convicted criminals known as the "Lost
Command" operates in the vicinity. This group is reportedly composed of men
whose prison or death sentences have been set aside in exchange for their
taking up arms as a commando group against Muslim guerrillas. Being under
the direct operational control of the Office of the President this group is said to
have contributed to the deterioration of peace and order in the area, where
three groups are now competing for control: "Trie Muslim resistance, the
Philippine Army, and the "Lost Command." *86
It is important to emphasize this aspect of the use of military assistance:
part of it goes toward arming local fanatics and bandit groups. And it is also
relevant to note that Mr. Marcos is depending on the very outlaw groups he had
vowed to suppress in his declaration of martial law.
Police and Para-Military Assistance.
In hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1 969. James
Wilson. Jr., admitted that the AID Public Safety Program which had been in
existence for about a decade, had "some bearing on counter-insurgency."
Wilson revealed that the AID program had "assisted in improving
Police/Philippine Constabulary/National Bureau of Investigation
communications networks in several provinces, including some which have
experienced some dissident activity." *87
The person who was most instrumcittal in setting up the Philippine program
was Frank Walton, a key AID police official who later went from the Philippines
to set up a similar program in Vietnam and is currently involved in "modernizing"
police forces in Iran, where police methods of dealing with dissenters have
achieved a special notoriety. From 1961 to 1973. Public Safety Program
allocations for the Philippines came to some $6 million. Much of the funding
and most of the organizational activity in the Philippine program took place
during Marcos constitutional tenure (1 966-1 972) and the first year of martial law
(1973). Whereas between 1961 and 1968 only $1.9 million were allocated for
the program, some S3. 9 million were spent from 1969 to 1973. indicating as
one report put it, "a perturbed U.S. reaction to a sudden change in Philippine
internal conditions.” *88
(* 85 . Wideman, op. cit.
*86. Names of sources available to selected congressmen on request.
* 87 . U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, op. cit., pp. 354-355.
*88. National Committee for the Restoration of Civil Liberties in the Philippines, “Report to the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Martial Law in the Philippines and U.S. Relations with the
Marcos Regime” (mimeo.: 1973), p. 34.
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It will be recalled That after the 1969 presidoriual elections, which were
universally considered to be the most corrupt in Philippine history, student
demonstrations against official graft and American influence, peasant marches
for land reform, and workers' actions against mounting inflation became
generalized phenomena.
It was during Marcos’ constitutional tenure that the Office of the President
and the AID office of Public Safety (OPS) set up the National Police
Commission, which began the work of organizationally integrating some 1 ,000
police forces. AID police assistance also made possible a coordinated internal
records system and 35 police communications networks, * 89 and established
10 regional training centers which imparted the most advanced techniques of
riot control, paramilitary operations, intelligence, and communications to 23,902
police officers between December 1969 and April 1973.* 90 During the same
period a total of 284 Filipino police officials were trained at the International
Police Academy (IPA) in Washington. In this connection, it is significant to
note that 35 Filipinos — the largest group ever — were graduated
from the IPA in 1973, the first year of martial law, m contrast to
an annual average of 15 previously.* 91
In the light of these facts, there can be no doubt that the AID Public Safety
Program makes a critical contribution in forging the police apparatus with which
Marcos so efficiently imposed martial law on September 22, 1972. More
recently, the program, asserted one academic specialist in Philippine affairs at
the University of Hawaii can take credit for such post-martial law
achievements as
... the ID card system now under way; the unrest of over 12,000 persons
held in new “detention centers”; and 1,500 modernized police departments in
which many policemen have the latest American riot guns, walkie-talkies, and
patrol car computer consoles.* 92
(* 89 . Kerkvliet, op. cit., p. 773.
* 90 . House Appropriations Committee, Hearings, Foreign Assistance and Related Agencies
Appropriations for 1975, Part Two (Washington: Govt. Printing Office, 1974), p. 285.
* 91 . International Police Academy, Yearbook (1969,1970,1972,1973) (Washington:
International Police Academy).
*92. Kerkvliet, op. cit.
Large quantities of new police equipment apparently were transferred to the
Philippines after martial law, in 1973. Angeles City, near Clark Air Base, was
one major recipient of such AID communication and patrol car shipments, *93
Davao City in the south, which has been threatened by Muslim rebel activity
was another important recipient. In November 1973 a police parade was
especially staged to show off new AID-donated patrol cars, an event which
some townsfolk cynically dubbed "the U.S. AID parade." *94
Equipment transfer appears, however, to be among the less "vital"
contributions of the Office of Public Safety. In the light of the sinister record of
the Vietnamese activities of the OPS, *95
(* 93 . Ibid.
* 94 . Rev. Paul Wilson, clergyman detained by Philippine government m 1974 and
congressional witness on June 5,1975; personal communication.
* 95 . AID-OPS and AID-CORDS were intimately involved in the CIA-directed pacification
effort “Operation Phoenix”, which carried out the liquidation of some 40,000 Vietnamese.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
and the suspicions which have led Congress to phase out the program, the
Philippine public safety project can most probably also take credit for helping
to institutionalize the most advanced techniques of information and confession
- extractionfrom political suspects, like the now common use of electric shock,
subtle psychological torture, and selective beating - methods remarkably similar
to those employed in Brazil, Korea, Vietnam, Iran, and Uruguay, all of which
have received significant amounts of OPS assistance and training.
Narcotics Control. The termination of the public safety program owing to well-
placed congressional concern over the training of the police forces of
repressive regimes, has not ended all police assistance to the Philippines. The
State Department continues to provide equipment and training for "international
narcotics control." From FY 1 972 to the end of FY 1 975 the Philippines received
some $1.1 million worth of narcotics-control assistance.
In 1975, of 25 countries participating in the program", the Philippines
received the seventh largest allocation of funds, outstripping even such "hard
core" drug sources as Turkey, Afghanistan, Cambodia, South Vietnam, Central
America, Paraguay, and Panama.*96 All this is curious. The Philippines has
never been a significant drug-production or drug-consumption country. The
narcotics contiol assistance in the Philippines was started, according to an AID
spokesperson, on the mere suspicion that the country could become a "major
drug route." *97 This expectation, he admitted, had not materialized but
narcotics assistance will continue into FY 1976 at probably the same level of
funding as in FY 1975.
The problem with police training in narcotics control is that the skulls
acquired in it can easily be transferred to the surveillance and apprehension of
political dissenters. Police techniques have universal applications that
transcend agent specializations, and the fact that part of the narcotics
program's training course is-integrated into the AID Public Safety Program's
instructional schedule at the International Police Academy*98 is indicative of
this. A concrete instance of the manner narcotics control skills have been
translated into the surveillance and apprehension of suspected political
dissenters occurred in April 1 973, when the Anti-Naicotics Unit of the Philippine
Constabulary (CANU) - a major recipient of equipment and training for the
International Narcotics Control Program — raided the house of Liliosa Hilao, a
suspected radical, and tortured her to death. The behavior of the Constabulary
narcotics agents was so brutal that even Secretary of Defense Juan Ponce
Enrile felt obliged to dissociate himself from them.*99
(* 96 . U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, op. cit., p. 342.
* 97 . Interview with David Christenson, Asst. Desk Officer for the Philippines, AID, March 7,
1975.
* 98 . U.S. Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hearings, Fiscal Year 1 975 Foreign
Assistance Request (Washington: Govt. Printing Office, 1974), p. 183. According to Senator Inouye
of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, “In the past the public safety program has been
justified in part because of its contribution to the narcotics program” (Senate Appropriations
Committee, op. cit., p. 387).
* 99 . Liberation (Philippines), June 21 ,1 973, p. 4; see also “A document of suspected death by
torture,” Ningas Cogon'iNew York), August 1973, p. 26.)
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The CIA. According to Jon Marks, former member of the intelligence
community and co-author of The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, the
Philippines is currently the regional headquarters of CIA communications in
Southeast Asia. The threat of CIA para-military interference in Philippine politics
is especially critical at this point because of two facts of major significance.
The first is that the current ambassador, William Sullivan, is no honorific
figure like his predecessor Henry Byroade or Shirley Temple Black. Mr.
Sullivan, it must be remembered, was formerly the U.S. Ambassador to Laos
where he set up and coordinated the three-pronged counter-insurgency
program of secret bombing, CIA efforts to form the famous Armee Clandestine
of Meo-tribesmen, and "rural development" by the AID.*ioo We would therefore
expect the tie-ups between the Ambassador's office, and the CIA to be closer
in the Philippines than in most other countries, and there are indeed indications
that Sullivan has been busy reassembling his battle-hardened Laotian staff.
The current Philippine desk officer at the Pentagon, for instance, served with
Sullivan in Laos and will soon be joining him as a "political officer" of the
Embassy.*ioi
The second fact of critical relevance is that the CIA local-support network
has traditionally been more established and influential in the Philippines than in
most other countries. A number of people connected with the Lansdale-
Magsaysay counter-insurgency effort in the early fifties have since risen to
national political and cultural prominence. Among them are such figures as ex-
senator Manuel Manahan, ex-congressman Oscar Arellano, and Jose
Crisol.*i 02
This support network will now be augmented by the return, following the
American debacle in Indochina, of hundreds, if not thousands, of Filipinos who
served in CIA-connected counter-insurgency support activities there. It has
been estimated that as many as 10,000 such jobs were filled by Filipinos'
familiarity with the English language and American managerial techniques
made them choice recruits for these support-activities.*i03
(*100. See Anthony Lewis, “Another Senate test.” New York Times, July 9, 1973.
*101. Severina Rivera, “Congressional record,” FFP Washington Report, April 1975, p. 5.
*102. The names of many of these figures can be found in Lansdale, and The Pentagon
Papers (New York: Bantam Books, 1971), pp. 135-136.
*103. Ngo Vinh Long (Vietnam Resource Center, Cambridge), personal communication.
Many of these jobs were with well-known CIA-backed or CIA-financed
operations such as "Operation Brotherhood" in Laos, Eastern Construction in
Vietnam, and Air America; the DOD-dependent Internationa] Volunteer
Services.*i04
(*104. For information on Operation Brotherhood-CIA links and Eastern Construction-CIA
tieups, see The Pentagon Papers, op. cit. Filipino pilots are favorite Air America recruits and Filipino
social workers were recruited into IVS. Recent reports on the U.S. evacuation of Indochina revealed
Filipino evacuees employed by the paramilitary contract firm, Vinnel.
The reputation of Filipinos as counter-revolutionary cadres and
mercenaries throughout Indochina was recently brought home in a CBS
interview last April with a young Vietnamese who stated that his primary reason
for seeking refuge in the United States was his fear that the PRC forces could
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
mistake him for a Filipino and "execute" him. More recently, Laotian students
demonstrated against and isolated Filipino-staffed "Operation Brotherhood"
teams.*i05 The training in CIA-connected counter-insurgent support activities
of these Filipinos might be considered a form of "paramilitary aid" to the
Philippines especially in view of the fact that most of them have been returning
home, where they would form a ready - and restless - pool of experienced
paramilitary cadres on which the CIA could easily draw for whatever local
adventures it might seek to launch.
Security-Relevant Economic Assistance
The experience in Indochina shows that security-relevant aid may come in
many guises. Three large-scale programs of the Agency for International
Development in the Philippines deserve special comment in this regard: the
AID-assisted "regional development" Scheme in the Bicol River Basin in Luzon;
the AID "provincial development" project and the "rural irrigation and roads"
project.
The Bicol regional development scheme is described, in the typical,
sanitized language of the Agency for International Development, as a "test area
of the planning of multi-faceted development programs and the implementing
of projects (primarily in agriculture) designed to raise farm output and improve
economic and social conditions for the small farmer.*i 06 AID entered the Bicol
River Basin Project in 1971 and activities were gradually intensified. In FY
1975, according to an AID spokesperson, AID funding of the project came to
between $380,000 and $460,000/107
*105. New York Times, May 17, 1975.
*106. U.S. Congress, House Appropriations Committee, op. cit., p. 1226.
*107. Interview with Christenson.
All this would in fact sound harmless were it not for the fact that Bicol has,
since 1970, become the second major expansion area of the New People's
Army, next to the group's stronghold in the Isabela-Cagayan Valley area of
Northern Luzon. The most heavily 'infected' area - to use the pafliological
imagery of counter-insurgency parlance - is Sorsogon Province, which one
frustrated Constabulary officer complained to a Manchester Guardian
correspondent, ". . . is better guerilla country than Isabela. . mountains, good
cover, bad roads where there are any at all, and above all, an abundance of
food." *108
While rural Sorsogon has been practically wrested from the army - which
lost a counter-insurgency task force general in the area when his helicopter
was shot down in July 1973 - guerilla activity has also increased in the areas
more immediately affected by the River Basin Program. Constabulary - NPA
firefight began to be recorded in several barrios of Camarines Sur by August
1973, *109 and an underground town and urban movement began to become
especially active, also by late 1973 in Naga City, the capital of Camarines Sur,
and Legaspi City and Daraga town in neighboring Albay Province.*iio
(*109. Liberation, October 10, 1973.
*110. Ibid.)
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
This correlation is quite clear: AID'S emphasis on Bicol increased as NPA
insurgent activity in the area escalated. The project will receive higher priority
in FY 1976 when it will be complemented by a SI 0 million rural road-building
program, which will include the rehabilitation of 200 feeder roads in isolated
areas, many of which are in NPA-infested Sorsogon.*m
The purpose of this supposedly humanitarian venture becomes quite
evident: it is to preempt the NPA of a rural mass base in the area by offering as
a substitute for agrarian revolution a development package upgrading the
productive efficiency of existent agricultural property systems with palliative
measures for small farmers and tenants, instead of genuinely redistributing
land, and by making the physical infrastructure of the area inhospitable to
guerilla activity through "road modernization."
The political, counterinsurgent character of the program becomes even
sharper, when we note that in 1974 AID contracted the services of the social
science research team of a well-known anthropologist with wide experience in
the area, clear anti-left opinions, and distinct pro-martial law views to do a large-
scale survey to tap peasant responses to various aspects of rural existence.
Frank Lynch and the Institute of Philippine Culture (I PC) of the Ateneo de
Manila University were eminently qualified to undertake the task: the IPC came
into its own as a research outfit when it received some $500,000 from the Office
of Naval Research (DOD) - a sum which was funneled through Perm State
University - to do a multi-disciplinary study on the "impact of modernization" in
the Philippines from 1966 to 1970, a project which touched on many "internal-
security" — relevant aspects of Filipino social, political, and economic Iife.*ii 2
The use of the behavioral sciences for counterinsurgency purposes is, of
course, familiar, and the activities of certain political scientists in Vietnam and
anthropologists in Thailand in the late sixties have been the bestknown
instances of this.*ii3
Provincial Development Assistance Project. In FY 1973 a new AID project,
funded to the tune of $4 million was introduced in the Philippines, this time with
the ostensible aim of "modernizing" provincial and local governments. "The
Philippines," an FY 1975 AID funding request puts it, in justifying the project,
"requires a substantially augmented administrative capability at the central
government, provincial, and local levels to handle expanded development
programs in the rural areas.*ii4 The project involved the assignment of
American "rural-development" experts to Filipino governors, *115 and was
projected to ultimately cover "almost one-half of the sixty-eight Philippine
provinces."*ii6
(*111. Interview with Christenson.
*112. See Institute of Philippine Culture, Modernization: Its Impact in the Philippines, Nos. 14
(Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1966-1970). For details on the funding of this project,
see one of the authors of this report, who served as publications director of IPC from 1967 to 1969.)
(*1 1 3. In the Philippines, another clearly “internal-security” related study was the investigation done
by RAND’s Harvey Averch, which was financed by AID and, according to Congressman Wolff of
the Foreign Affairs Committee, by the USAF. Published under the title of The Matrix of Public Policy
in the Philippines (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), this study was spe-
cifically aimed to find out the “optimum” combination of variables to keep the Philippines a stable
country friendly to the United States. Consult one of the authors of this report who has a copy of
the classified abstract of the study.)
(*114. House Appropriations Committee, op. cit., p. 1226.
(*115. Interview with Christenson; also Szulc,op.cit. + (*116. House Appropriations C’ttee.op. cit.)
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The project. Tad Szulc notes, has been "patterned in fact after the
Vietnamese CORDS (Civilian Operations and Revolutionary Development
Support) operations conducted jointly by the CIA, AID, and the Defense
Department as the principal 'pacification' effort." *117 More ominously, it has
been headed and staffed by former AID-CORDS Vietnam hands. In 1 973 it was
led by Thomas Rose, formerly AID'S public administration chief in Saigon, and
Richard Kriegel, former CORDS provincial adviser in Bindinh province in
Military Region Il.*ii8 Using the methodology provided by John Marks in his
seminal article on the ways to identify CIA agents , *119 we think it very likely
that one of these individuals was with the CIA in the fifties and may have acted
since then under AID cover - a rather common arrangement, according to an
AID witness during the FY 1974 congressional hearings on foreign assistance.
*120 As early as 1973, at least eight ex-CORDS specialists were monitored by
Szulc as being assigned to several areas of Southern Mindanao, including war-
torn Cotabato Province, and selected areas of Central Luzon /121 The program
has since been integrated into the larger regional development scheme in the
NPA-threatened Bicol area.*i 22
(*117. Szulc, op. cit.
*118. Ibid.
*119. See John Marks, “How tospota spook,” Washington Monthly, Septem-
ber 1974.
*120. House Foreign Affairs Committee, op. cit.
*121. Szulc, op. cit.
*122. Interview with Christenson.
Edward Morris, an American lawyer who made extensive travels in the rural
areas of the Philippines after martial law, asserted during his congressional
testimony on June, 5, 1975, that part of AID'S rural development assistance is
being channeled toward the training of rural police forces. If this is true - and
we think it likely to be true - then the most logical conduit for this sort of
assistance would be the provincial administration development project Given
its sudden launching in 1973, its suspicious objectives, and the links of its
personnel with CORDS, there is a strong possibility that the provincial
development program is covertly taking the place of the congressionally-
abolished Public Safety Program.
The AID effort has been coordinated with the Provincial Development
Assistance Program of the Office of the President, as the AID 1975 funding
request admits.* 123
(*123. House Appropriations Committee, op. cit.)
Interestingly enough, it has been partly through this agency that Mr. Marcos
extended and solidified his hold over provincial and municipal government units
prior to restructuring them in accordance with his model of
“constitutional authoritarianism.” It will be recalled that last February, voters
were forced to legitimize this fait accompli during Mr. Marcos’ controlled
referendeum by “giving” Marcos the power to appoint all provincial and
municipal officials.
Rural Roads Program. Bad roads have often been cited as one of the
reasons for the poor results of the AFP's counter-guerriir efforts. In FY 1975
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
about $1 5 million were allocated by AID to support the Philippine govern ment
roadbuilding efforts, with significant portions of the aid coming in tlie form of
Vietnam surplus equipment. Ten provinces received priority - Laguna, Nueva
Ecija, Tar'ac, Albay, Camarines Sur, Capiz, Leyte, Cebu, Misamis Oriental, and
Cotabato.*i24
It is significant that four of these provinces were war zones or high-
insurgency areas: Cotabato, Capiz, Albay, and Camarines Sur. In FY 1976
some $10 million, according to an AID spokesperson, are to be requested for
the high-priority Bicol Roads Project, which is to be integrated with the Bicol
Regional Development Project discussed above. As noted earlier, 220 "feeder
roads" in isolated areas of the region are to be "rehabilitated," including several
in Sorsogon Province, the NPA's stronghold in the Bicol area, where the AFP's
concern for the poor quality of roads is well-known.*i25 In this case, the
functional connection between road-building and counterinsurgency is not
difficult to discern.
(*124. Interview with Christenson.)
(*125. Whymant, op. cit.)
Food for Peace. The Food for Peace program (P.L. 480) has been aptly
described as providing "funds for war" on account of the practice of U.S. client
regimes directly or indirectly using the proceeds from food sales (under Title I
of P. L. 480) formilitarv or military-related projects. Infiscalyears 1973-
75,theUnited States gave the Philippines $26.4 million as credits under Title I,
*126 thus allowing the Marcos regime to allocate more of its budgetary
resources for the purchase of armaments — activities which now consume the
major portion of the government budget.
There are indications that even direct food donations under Title II of P.L.
480 are being diverted from their announced objectives and used to feed the
Philippine Army. On March 27, 1973, a New York Times reporter observed
Philippine troops in the Cotabato area unloading 'crates of supplies, some
adorned with the red, white and blue, handshaking label of the U.S. Agency for
International Development . . ." which administers P.L. 480.*127
The "Beaver Affairs." Let us conclude this discussion of militarily-relevant
forms of U.S. economic aid by taking up what we might call the "Beaver Affair,"
for this incident is illustrative of the more subtle - and convoluted - relationships
between AID and the Philippine military hierarchy. In 1973 the Philippines
obtained 120 DMC-2 Beavers for "develops ment purposes." *128
(*126. AID, FY 1976 Submission to Congress, Summary, Washington, D.C.: AID, May 1975, p. 83;
Department of State, op. cit., (see note 24).
*1 27. James Sterba, “Philippine Army fights frustrating war,” New York Times, March 27, 1 973.
*128. SIPRI, op. ciL
*129. Washington Post, October 6, 1973.
"Purchased for the cost of shipping" from the U.S. military surplus stockpile in
Vietnam, several of these planes were later observed being fitted out with
machine guns, a fact which reportedly drew the protest of tire AID office in
Manila when it was drawn to the latter's attention.*i29 The incident appeared
to have all the makings of an act, and AID'S protest in this case seemed more
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
pro forma than anything else. Being one of the most dependable general utility
aircraft, the Beaver was widely utilized in Vietnam for a wide variety of
supportive military functions, from detecting guerrilla movements to carrying out
light machinegun attacks. The purchase of such large numbers of proven and
insurgent aircraft by a government engaged in a major guerrilla was ought to
have made the surplus-disposal authorities - were they serious about restricting
its use - suspicious from the start and led them to more carefully investigate the
Philippine government's request. With the confirmation by foreign
correspondents of the predictable military utilization of the aircraft, the AID
office had, in short, no other alternative but to protest, but this should not
obscure what was initially a "complicity through deliberate passivity" on its part.
There is no assurance that the planes have not been covertly returned to
combat duty. An AID spokesperson asserted that they are currently being
utilized to make aerial photographs of the land reform area in Nueva Ecija
province.*i30 This is a curious activity for such a large number of aircraft; it
would mean one plane for every barrio. The fact that Nueva Vizcaya, where
NPA activity has been reported, borders Nueva Ecija, and Isabela, the prime
NPA stronghold, is less than a hundred miles away, might perhaps shed more
light on the "aerial photographic" functions of these aircraft.
(*130. Interview with Christenson.)
Chapter XIV
International Protection Racket
The conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos is locked in a tight
conspiratorial embrace with big business corporations from the United States
and Japan for the further economic exploitation of the Philippines. They are
engaged in a mutual protection racket.
The martial regime insures for big business from the United States an
excellent investment climate in the Philippines. In turn, American multinationals
help Marcos lobby with official Washington, . D.C. for continued American
economic and political support for the conjugal dictatorship.
On the other hand, the post-war Japanese zaibatsus (conglomerates) - also
in exchange for placing them practically on the same footing with big American
business in the Philippines — flash continuing signals to their MITI (Ministry of
International Trade and Industry) that Marcos deserves more dollar loans from
Tokyo.
The brave talk in the New Society is that the conjugal dictatorship now has
the big American and Japanese business by their balls. Marcos, it is arrogantly
held out, has it in his power to withdraw all the concessions he has granted the
foreign investors.
And yet, the victims of the international conspiracy are not just the Filipino
people whose economic nationalism has been betrayed by Marcos to open
them to wanton exploitation by the multinationals-. The groaning American and
Japanese taxpayers are victims no less of this protection racket invented by
Primitivo Mijares Page 3 Z9
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Marcos. They underwrite the multi-million dollar assistance and/or loan
programs of their respective governments to the conjugal dictatorship of
Ferdinand and Imelda.
Other giant companies from Western Europe and Oceania have also come
in to engage in manufacturing or in the exploitation of the Philippines' natural
resources. Undoubtedly, they, too, were attracted by the inducements offered
by the martial regime: cheap labor, frozen wages, impotent unions, no strikes
or demonstrations, no embarrassing investigations, tax holidays, relaxation of
visa requirements, incentives for corporate repatriation and profit remittance.
The strongest and most appalling conspiracy of the martial regime on the
exploitation of the Filipino people is with the American multinational. The
scheme is actually a continuation, a perpetuation of a colonial economic
relationship between the Philippines and the United States - a relationship that
had in the past prevented meaningful economic planning, diversification and
industrialization.
Undoubtedly, it is a great sell-out. The martial regime is bartering away
the national patrimony to the giant multinationals from the United States and
elsewhere in exchange for continuing international recognition of the conjugal
dictatorship. In the case of the United States, the license that the American
multinationals obtain from the martial regime is exchanged with the continuation
of the U.S. foreign assistance program to the dictatorship. The bulk of the aid,
in turn, is utilized by the fear machine of the dictatorship for oppression and
repression in the Philippines.* 1
(* 1 . Refer to chapter on “U.S. Aid Misused, Abets Dictatorhsip.”)
The tragic part of the conspiracy between the multinationals and Marcos is
that the former fell into a well-laid trap of the latter. Marcos himself contrived
the crises and established the other factors that drove the big American
business and other international merchants in the Philippines to embrace the
declaration of martial law. And now that the multinationals are seemingly
irretrievably mired in the quicksand of the conjugal dictatorship, they still would
want to continue the conspiracy with Marcos in order to protect their
investments.
The breakdown of law and order and the violence that possessed the
peaceful demonstrations of the awake studentry and peasantry in the late 60s
and early 70s were instigated by the special operations units of Marcos which
have succeeded in infiltrating die ranks of the activists. Economic nationalism
assumed a vehement anti-American tone, also at the instance of Marcos. The
two Supreme Court decisions (the Quasha and Luzon Stevedoring cases)
which boosted economic nationalism were handed down on cases initiated by
the Solicitor General (now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Antonio P.
Barredo). Marcos directed Barredo to file those cases. Marcos also plugged
vigorously for the approval by Congress of an Investment Incentives Act that
would adopt the principles and objectives of economic nationalism.
When Marcos proclaimed martial law, Marcos told the international
business community that his dictatorship would provide the needed peace and
order and protection from the weapons of economic nationalism given out by
the Supreme Court and Congress to the Filipino people.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The set-play employed by Mafia-minded Marcos was not different from the
"watch-your-car" racket flourishing in the side streets of Manila. When a street
urchin says, "Watch your car, Mister?" what he means is that the car owner
must pay him something so that he will not slash car tires or damage any part
of the car while the driver is away. The kid, however, does not guarantee that
the car will not be stolen while parked.
An interesting article written by a Filipino national Proculo Rodriguez, Jr.,
who now resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, sheds light on the exploitation of
under-developed countries by multinationals. Excerpts from the article
follows :*2
(*2. Philippine Times, Feb. 1-15, 1976, page 18. The article is entitled,
“Under-development Worsened by the Multinational Firms.”
AN ARTICLE, entitled "Why Companies Do Business Abroad" - prepared
by the editors of the Reader's Digest and presented by the Business
Roundtable as an advertisement — appeared in the November, 1975 issue of
Reader's Digest.
Numerous charges have been leveled against U.S. multinationals to the
effect that chronic under-development throughout the Third World is the direct
result of multinational corporation policies. This controversial issue has
generated so many study-surveys (See the UN Report on the Impact of
Multinational Corporation on Development and on International Relations,
1974), that it is highly improbable the editors , of the Reader's Digest could be
unaware of this fact.
At this juncture, it is best to present a composite definition of a multinational
corporation also known as transnational enterprises. A multinational
corporation is a company, having production and marking facilities in many
countries, either on its own or in partnership with host-country corporations,
enjoying worldwide access to capital, depending on foreign income, and being
managed with a worldwide point of view. (See David Ewing, Multinationals on
Trial, Harvard Business Review).
It must be noted that some of the most serious and persistent criticism of
U.S. multinationals have come from Third World countries. These criticisms
relate to the sheer size of these companies and their consequent powerful
social and political impact in the Third World nations in which they operate. For
example, the sales of Exxon, AT & T, General Motors, Ford Motor, Sears
Roebuck, and General Electric are larger annually than the gross national
products of the Philippines, Turkey, Korea or Thailand. U.S. investments in
such countries as the Philippines, Mexico, Venezuela, and Brazil account for
the bulk of those countries' foreign investments and foreign exchange earnings.
(Quoting from "An Examination of Multinational Corporations, March, 1973,
Corporation Information Center Brief, N.Y.)
Furthermore, the profits thatj multinationals derive from poor countries are
almost incredible. United Nations figures show that in 1970, they repatriated
$2.4 billion from Asia but only invested $200 million. In 1968, they repatriated
$2.9 billion from Latin America but invested only $900 million. In 1971, they
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
repatriated $996 million from Africa but invested only $270 million. And in most
instances, these multinationals dp not generate their own capital.
Unwittingly, therefore, the article-advertisement of the Business
Roundtable itself lent credence to the charges leveled against U.S.
multinationals, by providing its own figures, to the effect that American
companies operating abroad “returned home royalties and foreign earnings of
$21 .4 billion — three times the outflow for new foreign investments.”
Contrary to the assertions made in the said article, it has been claimed that
operations of these transnational enterprises has in fact not only stunted the
economic growth of some countries, but actually such countries are worse off
than before. According to the 1971 Economic Survey of Asia and the Far East,
“In the first development decade of the 1960s it is apparent that large sectors
of Third World populations, based on income distribution, family expenditure
and dietary surveys, experienced no real improvement in their standard of
living, and even became worse off.”
The best illustration of the rapacious conduct of some U.S. multinationals
would be their operations in the Philippines which has a long history of trade
and investment relations with the United States.
The Philippines became a colony of the United States after the U.S. victory
in the Spanish-American War of 1898. What followed was typical colonial
relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines, wherein the U.S. dominated
Philippine trade. The Philippines exported agricultural products to the United
States, and imported manufactured goods that their underdeveloped industry
could not produce. This colonial free trade policy is said to have had a lasting
detrimental effect on the economy of the Philippines.
The Philippines achieved commonwealth status in 1935, and was granted
independence in 1946. However, the Philippines continued to be economically
dependent on the United States, as the U.S. perpetuated a structure of
underdevelopment. This situation was aggravated by the so-called Philippine
Trade Act of 1946 which, in return for U.S. economic assistance after the
Philippines was devasted in the second World War, provided for the exemption
of American citizens and companies from the constitutional restriction limiting
the exploitation of the Philippine natural resources to Filipinos, known as the
“Parity Rights” amendment.
Presently, current U.S. investments in the Philippines are valued at $2
billion or even as high as $3 billion. Whatever the actual figure, U.S. investment
in the Philippines is greater than that in any other Southeast Asian country.
While investment in the Philippines represents only 1 percent of the total book
value of U.S. direct investment worldwide, it also represents 80 per cent of all
foreign investments in the Philippines. Thus, U.S. investment is crucial to the
Philippine economy as it is currently structured.
U.S. multinationals now dominate in all major Philippine industries —
automotives, petroleum, rubber, timber, mining, sugar, banking and finance,
agribusiness, and even accounting and advertising services. The evidence
suggests that rather than promoting economic development by applying capital,
technology and managerial know-how, multinational corporations actually
fostered underdevelopment in the Philippines.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
A report prepared by the Corporate Information Center of the National
Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., entitled The Philippines: American
Corporations, Martial Law and Under-development (1973) has presented the
following summarized conclusions:
1. Statistics show that in the Philippines from 1966 to 1971, income levels
for the bottom 20 per cent have actually declined, from 4.5 per cent to 3.6 per
cent, while the upper 20 per cent holds 54 per cent of the wealth.
Unemployment and underemployment continue to rise as well.
2. The largely capital-intensive orientation of multinational corporations,
their penetration of foreign countries through local acquisition of would-be
nationally owned competitors, and their ability to hide profits from taxation
and to inflate prices represent some of the ways by which the development and
living conditions in the developing countries are ultimately shaped by the impact
of multinationals.
3. The increasing control foreign banks exercise on the local currency
deposit favors their multi-national industrial counterparts at the expense of
loans to local industry. A study conducted by the National Economic Council of
the Philippines between 1956 and 1965 on 108 of the largest U.S. firms in the
Philippines showed that 84 per cent of their financing was done through local
currency loans. Profits remitted to foreign beneficiaries were 300 per cent
greater than capital invested by these companies.
Two case studies were made in the fruit manufacturing industry in the
Philippines which is virtually a monopoly of two American multinationals, the
Del Monte Corporation and the Dole Philippines, a subsidiary of Castle &
Cooke. These case studies (see CIC Report, pp. 36-43) are fascinating for they
reveal how these two multinationals were getting 200 per cent a year return on
their respective per capita (equity) on land not owned by them but owned by
the Filipino people.
It must be admitted, however, that in the case of American control of
banking and financing in the Philippines, this has been largely due, in recent
years, to the strange policies of the Marcos martial law regime which seems to
favor foreign investments — a strange development for a country that
ostensibly desires to assume control of its economy. (Marcos converted this
Amencan-style democratic nation to a dictatorial one when he declared
martial law on Sept. 21, 1972).
With this brief evaluation of U.S. investments in the Philippines, the wider
issue of multinational corporations and their implications particularly in
reference to Third World development becomes apparent. The question of
whether multinational corporations embody hope for economic development or,
on the contrary perpetuates a structure of underdevelopment, becomes
the paramount issue. Certainly, this crucial issue cannot be brushed aside by a
few propaganda lines in the heretofore sacrosanct Reader’s Digest.
In conclusion, let me quote the words of Felix Greene, in his book, The
Enemy (London, 1970) as quoted by Jovito Salonga in his lecture at the
University of the Philippines, Sept. 20, 1974, to wit:
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
"The truth is that investment by foreign capitalist corporations has always
accomplished precisely the opposite of what the theory claims. Whatever short-
term local stimulation of business and rise in employment and wages might
initially take place, the long-term consequences are invariably that more wealth
is taken out of the underdeveloped country by the foreign corporation than they
invested in it. This is the whole point of such investments. The foreign
investments do not diminish the disparity in the rate of development between
the advanced and underdeveloped countries but aggravate and increase it. . .
They are pumps designed to suck up the country's wealth and transfer it
abroad."
The Rodriguez article easily points out the indubitable fact that multi-
nationals operating in a poor country invariably tend to control its economy.
They ruin or buy out local enterprises unable to compete with them, borrow
working capital from local banks and financing institutions, transfer obsolete or
overpriced technology, engage in transfer pricing and in the massive outflows
of foreign exchange, corrupt the local ruling elite through all sorts of devices
and pressures, expose the native population to consumption patterns suitable
only toaffluent societies, and aggravate a poor country's dependence on foreign
technology, foreign investments, foreign markets, foreign credits, and imported
styles and products. Instead of helping develop a poor country, the evidence
shows that most ofthem actually prolong its under-development.
And yet, it is a never ending source of pride for Marcos to be able to
announce through the controlled media that new foreign loan commitments
have been obtained, that a multinational company has been convinced to make
Manila its regional headquarters, that another foreign group has decided to
make an investment in the Philippines, that more hotels and tourist resorts are
being built, and that strikes are no longer possible.
With the open-door policy of Marcos, foreigners have now assumed a
quantitatively commanding role in the national economy . Filipino capital has
been dispossessed of its economic birthright. Verily, the development program
of Marcos is being pursued at the expense of the country and the overwhelm-
ing majority of the Filipino people and at the sacrifice of economic sovereignty.
Marcos threw the country’s investment field wide open to foreign capital
and multinational corporations by offering attractive tax and foreign exchange
incentives, and an even more attractive labor situation. Marcos offered the
country’s large pool of unemployed and underemployed labor, ban on labor
strikes and an unalterable ceiling on workers’ wages and salaries.
While offering the attractive investment incentives, Marcos dictated to the
Constitutional Convention a martial law constitution that:
1) Reversed the Supreme Court decisions in the Quasha and Luzon
Stevedoring cases, and
2) Gave the dictator power to disregard all restrictive laws on foreign
investments in concluding treaties and executive agreements. *3
(*3. 1973 Constitution, Art. XIV, Sec. 15.)
Not content with providing for favors in the martial law Constitution to
foreign investors, Marcos himself executed acts further calculated to strengthen
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
his conspiracy with foreign investors. In aseries of decrees, which can happen
only in a dictatorship, Marcos:
1) Unilaterally extended the Parity Rights for one year, from July 4, 1974,
to July 3. 1975.
2) Approved during the period of such extension schemes by which U.S.
firms divested themselves of title, but otherwise retained the beneficial use and
control, of land acquired during parity.
3) Ratified the Philippines-Japan Treaty of Amity, Commerce and
Navigation. The treaty ratifying Senate of the Philippines sat down on the treaty
for 1 2 years, refusing to ratify it on account of fears that the accord would open
the country to Japanese economic exploitation.
4) Relaxed Filipinization laws on the retail trade, the rice and corn industry,
the inter-island shipping industry, and the banking system.
Now, everybody.... Now, everybody knows that Marcos is a master of
the politics of quid pro quo. He provides overwhelming investment incentives
for American multinationals to enable them to reap enormous profits with
minimum investments while exploiting the natural and manpower resources of
the Filipinos. In exchange, the U.S. transnational enterprises report back to
their mother companies in continental America that they are enjoying a
bonanza under the martial regime of Marcos. The implication of the “good
behavior rating” of the martial law regime is that the mother companies should
see to it that Marcos is not destabilized — as yet.
Thus, with the lobbying of the multinationals with official Washington, D.C.,
Marcos is assured of continuing American foreign assistance that will show that
he is supported still by the U.S. government and that the martial law
government continues to earn dollars from abroad.
Fortunately, the multinationals do not control the United States Congress
where a new wind has started blowing. A great number of U.S. lawmakers have
started taking a long hard look at political repression and oppression in the
Philippines. Animated by the spirit that made America great, they still believe
in that worn-out principle that freedom is indivisible, that an attack on freedom
anywhere — as in the Philippines — is an attack on freedom everywhere. Thus,
the latest foreign aid bill passed by Congress included a proviso that assistance
might be withheld from any country practising the internment of political
prisoners.
There ought to be great consternation in the U.S. Congress as well as
among the multinationals which are coddling Marcos, as it were, when they
discover the devious designs resorted to by Marcos in winning the support of
American business for his declaration of martial law.
It was Marcos himself who instigated the violent demonstrations against
American firms and "the imperialist Americans" during those riotous days
before martial law. It was Marcos who ordered his Solicitor General to file the
suit, entitled Republic vs. Quasha which sought the nullification of sales of
private lands to U.S. citizens after 1945. Marcos likewise directed his Solicitor
General to take a vigorous stand in favor of nationalism in the case of Luzon
Stevedoring vs. Anti-Dummy Board, which resulted in a Supreme Court ruling
banning foreign directors in corporations engaged in Fihpinized industries.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Marcos played on the nationalist sentiments of a majority of the Supreme Court
justices to wring out from the justices decisions dripping with nationalistic
undertones. Then, he let loose his paid propagandists to write subtly that the
wave of nationalism in the Philippines was taking on a rabid anti-American
orientation.
On the day Marcos was to declare martial law, he told American
Ambassador Henry Byroade that he was under compulsion to resort to the
emergency measure on account of, among others, the growing wave of anti-
Americanism fanned by the nationalistic decisions of the Supreme Court on the
Quasha and Luzon Stevedoring cases.
The 1973 report prepared by the Corporate Information Center of the
National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. had this to say on American
corporations and martial law:*4
(*4. “The Philippine American Corporations, Martial Law, and Underdevelopment.")
The declaration of martial law carried with it changes that have been of
particular advantage to American corporations in the Philippines. In some
cases these advantages have been indirect; others have been more deliberate.
(Italics ours)
Very soon after the declaration of martial law, Presides Marcos began a
continuing process of reassuring American business people that their interests
were safe and that there would be no moves like expropriation under his
administration.
One important advantage American businesses have received under
martial law is the silencing of anti-American Filipino nationalism. In the years
before martial law, American companies had been the object of a growing
number of verbal and physical confrontations. Some of these were the result of
a general trend toward “widespread corruption and lawlessness ranging from
extortion to piracy.” while others were specifically anti-American movements. In
recent interviews, various company spokesmen cited incidents that had taken
place during this time ranging from bombings to demonstrations that, they
reported, created an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear about company
operations. Through the workings of a controlled press, the prohibition of all
forms of protest demonstrations, and the crackdown on lawlessness and crime
under martial law, American corporations have enjoyed a respite from such
confrontations.
A similar advantage under martial law for American companies is the
disbanding of the Congress. The economic anti-Americanism expressed there
in recent years also had been a cause for uncertainty. Now disbanded, the
Congress can play no part in determining economic policy.
President Marcos' direct assurances to American companies were
formalized in sections of the new Constitution drafted under martial law. All the
anti-American nationalist proposals of earlier constitutional drafts were omitted.
Regarding the critical question of land rights, President Marcos had stated
immediately after the declaration of martial law that he would clarify the
meaning of the Supreme Court Quasha decision. He has, in effect, negated the
ruling that American corporations do not have vested rights to the lands they
own after parity ends in 1974. The new Constitution formalized the negation of
the decision in recognizing that the land had been acquired legally and keeps
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
open the possibility that U.S. corporations will be able to continue to own the
land after July 3, 1974.
The new Constitution also includes two other areas that were of concern to
American companies. Despite the provision that companies in the area of public
utilities must be 60 percent Filipino by July 3, 1974, the new Constitution
includes an escape clause. It states that "any provision of the article
notwithstanding, the state may enter into international treaties or agreements
as the national welfare and interest may require," The Constitution also negates
another nationalist Supreme Court decision, the Luzon Stevedoring case; the
Court had determined that foreign nationals could not sit on the board of
directors of a public utility even though they held equity in it. The new
Constitution ignores this and simply asserts that "representation of foreign
capital in the governing body of such public utility may be allowed only in
proportion to the extent of its equity."
The general specific efforts toreassure the American business community
reflect perhaps a close relationship between President Marcos and American
business people. Various theories can be expounded to explain this
relationship: Marcos desperately needs the support of American corporations
and will have to satisfy their interests to stay in power; or, Marcos knows he
has American corporations caught and he can threaten loss of land or privileges
if they do not support his decisions. It is difficult to substantiate either theory.
But it is evident that there is a close cooperation, or at least understanding,
between Marcos and American business interests. They have not been and, it
is safe to say, they will not be working at cross purposes. 'The businessmen
are confident that Mr. Marcos is hostile to the strong trend of Filipino economic
nationalism, essentially anti-American in character." (Henry Kamm,
"Philippines President Held Friendly to U.S. Business," New York Times,
November 13, 1972, p. 62). There are also more concrete ties between U.S.
business and Marcos. Some U.S. companies are strongly identified with
Marcos. "Companies such as Hawaii's Castle and Cooke and Gulf Oil have
important allies of Marcos on the boards of their Philippine subsidiaries. And
Ford Motor Company plans to build a stamping plant in a recently created
foreign trade zone at Bataan. . . Reportedly, Marcos and his friends own most
ol the land in the trade zone." ("Philippines: A Government that Needs U.S.
Business." Business Week. November 4. 1972, p. 42).
One American businessman explained that Marcos needs the cooperation
of all within ihc economic sphere. American investments represent a major part
of that sphere and without their cooperation many of Marcos' economic
programs could not go through. "Of great importance to the Philippine
Government at this point is the confidence of the New York financial and
corporate community. As of January 31, 1972, the Philippine external debt
amounted to $2.1 billion. The United States holds approximately 45 per cent of
this debt . . (Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, "Korea
and the Philippines: November 1972, Staff Report, February 18, 1973, p. 35)
Another source phrased it this way: "Marcos is asking the companies to lobby
for substantial U.S. government aid and favorable treatment for Philippine
exports. More important, Marcos hopes that if he continues to treat U.S.
business right, U.S. bankers will continue to treat him right." ("Philippines: A
Government that Needs U.S. Business," Business Week, November 4, 1972,
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
p. 42)
There is no clear evidence on the issue of actual collusion of American
corporations with the declaration of martial law. There have been numerous
allegations, however, that American business was really behind the
declaration. Representatives of the American corporate community deny any
involvement The role of American corporations just after the declaration is also
open to debate. mAgain, allegations of secret cooperation between Marcos and
American business have been made. There seems to be at least some
substance to these allegations in that an American business representative
stated during an interview that two officers of the American Chamber of
Commerce of the Philippines conferred with President Marcos within days after
the declaration on the cooperative role American corporations were to play
under martial law. An American Chamber of Commerce representative
vehemently denied this charge, stating that the organization had had no
meetings with the President. He also stated that such political actions are not
condoned by American multinational corporations, x x x
American and other foreign investments in the Philippines since martial law
can be categorized into four basic groups: investments by new operations
planned before martial law and implemented since; investments by new
operations planned and implemented since the declaration; expansion of
existing operations planned before martial law and implemented since; and
expansions planned and implemented since the declaration. The major
American investments fit into several of these categories.
A significant case of new American investment as a direct result of martial
law is a joint venture in an investment banking involving two large American
interests. Chase Manhattan Bank and the American International Reinsurance
Company (AIRCO) have joined with a Filipino group increating the new
Philippine-American Investment Corporation. Each American company will
hold a 20 per cent interest. ("Stake in the Philippines,” U.S. News and World
Report, December 4, 1972, p. 71) The initial paid-in capital of the venture is PI
million but will be raised to P10 million after approval by the Board of
Investments, with the authorized capital at P50 million. The investment
by the two American companies was precipitated by the martial law situation.
"MR. Greenberg, AIRCO chairman, just back from Manila and talks with
President Ferdinand E. Marcos, says he is 'far more optimistic' about the
investment climate than he was a few months ago. The businessman finds Mr.
Marcos "addressing himself realistically' to his nation's problems, rather than
urging a nationalistic line." ("Stake in the Philippines.")
Another investment by U.S. companies that was a direct result of martial
law proclamation is in oil exploration. The Chevron Oil Company and the
Texaco Corporation joined two local Philippine companies. Abstract Mining
and Industrial Corporation and Astro Minerals and Oil Corporation, in a joint
venture to explore for oil. The venture was made possible by Marcos' decree
opening oil exploration to foreign corporations by allowing service contracts
with the government. The two U.S. companies will invest S8 million to explore
through their international branches. Chevron Overseas Petroleum and Texaco
International Petroleum. The approved venture will explore an area in the Sulu
Sea area of 1.2 million hectares (adjacent lo Shell and Exxon concessions).
Under the terms of the government agreement, the government will receive 60
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
per cent of all production and the tax-free 40 per cent will be divided so that
each American corporation receives 32.5 per cent and each local company 7.5
per cent, x x x
"The symbiotic relationship between the martial regime of Marcos and the
American multinationals are very real indeed. Marcos has given and continues
to give giant foreign investors, particularly American multinationals, a stake in
the stability of his martial regime. The foreign investors are supposed to act as
sentinels for the regime against any move to destabilize Marcos by either
domestic or foreign elements. In exchange, Marcos is bargaining away the
national patrimony. In the light of the commanding role of foreign capital in the
Philippines, the Filipinos are being steered irreversibly by the dictator towards
the de-nationalization of the national patrimony and near total dependence on
foreign capital for their livelihood.
Chapter XV
Spineless Judiciary Legitimizes A Pretender
The existence and operation of the Supreme Court and other adjuncts of the
judiciary is the best argument against martial law in the Philippines.
Unfortunately, however, it is the judiciary itself, notably the Supreme Court,
which sustains them unwelcome life of, and cloaks with legitimacy, the conjugal
dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.
Upon the other hand, Marcos can no longer legally style himself as "the
President of the Philippines.*' His constitutional term in office expired a long
time ago - on December 30, 1973. Neither can Marcos claim to be President
under the so-called "new Constitution." The Filipino people never validly ratified
this new Constitution. The Supreme Court itself said so.*i
(* 1 . Javellana vs. Executive Secretary, et al, G.R. Nos. L-36142, L-36164,
L-36165, L-36236 and 36283.)
Marcos is a usurper. He is at best a "de facto" ruler who holds power in a
tragic demonstration of a slogan coined by Marcos' new idol, Chairman Mao
Tse-Tung of China, that "power flows from the barrel of a gun." In a collective
sense. Marcos' gun consists of the terrifying guns of martial law.
Marcos, the man on horseback, and a supine and spineless Supreme Court
that has no logical reason for being under a martial regime are engaged in a
treasonous conspiracy to deprive the Filipino. people indefinitely of their civil
liberties. Marcos and the Supreme Court have struck up a "you scratch my
back, I scratch your back" relationship. The Marcos-Supreme Court "modus
vivendi" may be akin to the relationship between a killer-kidnapper and his
wretched hostage who has become cooperative in telling the neighbors what a
swell and legit guy his captor is just because the kidnapper had promised not
to harm him while waiting for the ransom money.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Now, it is a principle of government that where the courts of justice fail to
function on account of a breakdown of law and order, martial law may be
declared. Conversely, where the courts are able to function freely and
independently, there cannot be any further justification for the operation of a
government under martial law.
When Marcos declared martial law. he "ordered" the judiciary "to continue
to function." It was a very astute move; Although he had made il plain that he
was assuming ail powers of government, mhere was a benevolent Mr.
Marcosmallowing the Supreme Court "to continue to function." But he didn't
leave any room for doubt that the Supreme Court should derive its authority,
not from the Constitution, but from the "order" of the dictator.
Marcos also let it be understood that he needs, and would allow the
functioning of, the Supreme Court only for the purpose of vesting the martial
law regime with a cloak of legitimacy. Any pretense, therefore, that the
Supreme Court is an independent tribunal falls flat. The high tribunal
shamelessly exists today for only one main function, i.e. to
cloak the conjugal dictatorship and its every decree, act or decision with
legality. Since September 1972, the Supreme Court has never ruled against
the martial regime.
If the Supreme Court shouldever muster enough courage and sense of
patriotism and over-rule Marcos on anything, without the dictator's consent,
then as surely as night follows day, Marcos would abolish the high court the
next day.
The behavior of the Supreme Court under the martial law backed
dictatorship is reprehensible, but not so surprising. It was captured and turned
into a political instrument by the men of Marcos as early as 1971 . *2 Thus, as
early as October, 1971, the Philippine Supreme Court started desecrating the
spirit of the U.S. Miranda ruling and delivered by December 1971, the civil
liberties of the Filipino people to President Marcos.*3
(*2. See Chapter on ‘infrastructure of Martial Law.)
(*3. Ibid; case of Lansang vs. Garcia, G.R. No. L-33965, December 11, 1971.)
The Supreme Court decision on die infamous case of Lansang vs. Garcia
was a complete over-turning of its libertarian-philosophy as spelled out in the
case of People vs. Hernandez, 99 Phil. 51 5. Promulgated in the early 50s, the
Hernandez decision earned for the Supreme Court the accolade of an entire
nation, and the sobriquet as the "last bulwark of the civil liberties” of the Filipino
people. The decision pronounced that individual liberty is "too basic, too
transcendental and vital in a republican state, like ours, to be denied upon mere
general principles and abstract considerations of public safety."
Today, the Supreme Court would scream "'rebellion, continue martial law”
on a mere citation by Marcos of the mosl trivial episodes of disorder in the
Philippines. I stated the following when I testified before the Fraser committee
on June 17. 1975, by way of answer to a question propounded by
Congressman Fraser:*4
(*4. Page 306, printed copy of transcript of hearings held by the House Sub-committee on
International Organizations on “Human Rights in South Korea and the Philippines: Implications for
U.S. Policy.”)
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
"May I add, Mr. Chairman, in connection with the decisions piomulgated by
the Supreme Court, the Piesident can even claim that a white paper is black
and the Supreme Court will decide it is black, even though it is white (Laughter),
x x x"
Perhaps, like any collaborator brought before a people's court upon the end
of an enemy occupation, members of the Supreme Court will excuse
themselves before the bar of history by claiming that they were reduced to
submission and timidity by Marcos on account of violence, intimidation and
threats used against them.
The subjugation of the Supreme Court by Marcos was slow and methodical
as were his approaches to other aspects of his preparations for the imposition
of martial law. First, it was the membership which he captured. Months before
September, 1 972, all but two of the members of the high tribunal were personal
nominees and appointees of Marcos.
Then, he put his "fifth columnist" phalanx to severe tests. Initially, it was the
suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. The court upheld
Marcos on the celebrated case of Lansang vs. Garcia. Next came the
nationalistic decisions on the cases of Quasha vs. Republic and Luzon
Stevedoring vs. Anti-Dummy Board which Marcos also sought of the Supreme
Court.*5 (*5. See Chapter on “Infrastructure of Martial Law”.)
When Marcos seized power on September 1972, he did not abolish the
Supreme Court as he did with Congress. After all, the great majority of the
justices were the President's men.
Marcos made no bones about the source of power of the Supreme Court.
Under General Order No. 1, he declared that he "shall govern the nation and
direct the operation of the entire government, including all its agencies and
instrumentalities. (Italics ours) Then Marcos issued an "order" through General
Order No. 3 to the Judiciary to "continue to function in accordance with its
present organization and personnel, and (shall) try and decide in accordance
with existing laws all criminal and civil cases, except" those challenging his
dictatorial powers.
The areas declared by Marcos as taboo for judicial inquiry were:
1. Those involving the validity, legality or constitutionality of Proclamation
No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972 (the martial law proclamation), or of any
decree, order or acts issued, promulgated or performed by me or by my duly
designated representative pursuant thereto.
2. Those involving the validity, legality or constitutionality of any rules,
orders or acts issued, promulgated or performed by public servants pursuant
to decrees, orders, rules and regulations issued and promulgated by me or by
my duly designated representative pursuant to Proclamation No. 1 081 .
Within a week from the declaration of martial law, Marcos demanded the
submission of the "resignation from office not later than October 15, 1972" of
"all officers of the national government whose appointments are vested in the
President." *6
(*6. Letter of Instructions No. 11, dated September 29, 1972.)
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
As they were specifically excepted from the demanding tone of LOI No. 1 1 ,
the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court thought they
were going to be spared the Sword of Damocles by the President. However,
when Marcos dictated the provisions of the "new Constitution" to the
Constitutional convention he saw to it that the threat of dismissal covered the
members of the high court, the new Constitution provided that justices of the
Supreme Court may only "continue in office until they reach the age of 70 years
unless sooner replaced" by the President.
The consequences of the series of "judicial reforms" initiated by Marcos
since the advent of martial law left no doubt that all judges, from die hjghest to
the lowest, work under threat of dismissal at any time, Marcos can replace any
judge any time he is disposed to do so, and in fact, has repeatedly done so
Veteran judges of long service have been dismissed through curt notices of
acceptance of their compulsory resignations. Judges have been summarily
booted out, their names, careers and reputation ruined and thei future
shattered, without being heard in their defense, even without beling told what
were the charges against them.*7
(*7. Section 9 and 10, Article XVII (Transitory Provisions) of the martial law Constitution.
The Philippine News, issue for the week of March 5 to 12, 1975, published
the following piece which I wrote on the administration of justice under martial
law:
MARCOS IS THE LAW
Backed by an oppressive martial law. President Marcos has transformed
the Philippine judiciary into a submissive adjunct of the executive for the
purpose of assuring the Oriental dictator's claimed infallibility.
Thus, anybody who might dare oppose Marcos or challenge the
constitutionality of his acts or the weight of evidence of charges filed or caused
to be filed against his enemies might as well abandon all hopes of succeeding
in this stage of judicial development in the Philippines.
By his imposition of martial law on Sept 21 ,1 972, Marcos created a climate
of fear so pervasive in the country. Then, in a series of decrees and orders, he
gave all sectors no choice but to do his bidding.
The fearsome power of martial rule was dramatically demonstrated by
Marcos in the firing squad execution of opium dealer Lim Seng on Jan. 9, 1 973.
While it is true that Urn's execution was demanded by the people, the only
public blood-letting thus far resorted to by the martial regime was calculated
more to make all sectors aware that the dictator would not hesitate to press the
trigger — when necessary.
The dire message of this two-pronged "propaganda of the deed" resorted
to by Marcos in the Lirn execution was not lost to the Supreme Court of the
Philippines.
The high court lost no time in choosing the side of Marcos in selectively
deciding some of the "urgent" cases brought against the dictator.
Of course, Marcos set out his own infallibility - insofar as forces within the
Philippines weremconcerned — when he imposed martial law.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
A major prop to such claim infallibility was spelled out by Marcos on the day
he proclaimed martial law when he issued General Order No. 3, providing
among others:
"I do hereby further order that the Judiciary shall continue to function in
accordance with its present organization and personnel, and shall try and
decide in accordance with existing laws all criminal and civil cases, except the
following:
"1. Those involving the validity, legality or constitutionality of any decree,
order or acts issued, promulgated or performed by me or by my duly designated
representative pursuant to Proclamation No. 1 081 , dated Sept. 21 , 1 972. xx x"
Aside from promulgating General Order No. 3, Marcos resorted to other
significant ways, either subtle or crude, in subjugating the Supreme Court and
the other inferior courts of the land, to wit:
1) By beaming messages to the Supreme Court, when the occasion
demanded, that a judicial rebuff would compel him to dismantle the existing
martial law apparatus and pave the establishment of military junta-ruled
revolutionary government.
2) By issuing Letter of Instructions No. 11, by which the President required
all presidential appointees, including judges, but excluding members of the
Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, to submit their resignations, thereby
making them serve at the absolute pleasure of the President.
3) By taking the official position, through his Solicitor General, in cases
pending before the Supreme Court that the imposition of martial law
automatically suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, thereby
making such posture a virtual order to the high court.
4) By demonstrating his capacity for abrogating at will the normal
procedural and substantive function of the courts when he promulgated
Presidential Decree No. 385, dated January 31,1974.
5) By carefully screening new appointees to the Supreme Court who are
approaching the age of 65, the retirement age, and increasing the salaries of
justices, but making them feel by example that the P300.000.00 lump sum
retirement pay of a Supreme Court justice could be had "only for good
behavior."
With coercive process of martial law at work, plus some carrots held out by
Marcos, the development or transformation of the Philippine judiciary could not
but go a long way after September 21 , 1 972.
But it seems that he had other objectives. Marcos succeeded in setting up
a peculiar type of compartmentalized justice in the country. There is now one
judicial yardstick for Marcos and his acts; a different standard for that nebulous
group of people tagged as the “enemies” of Marcos, and, therefore of the state;
and the real impartial justice for the rest of the country.
In accordance with the yardstick fashioned out by Marcos for the Supreme
Court and inferior courts to follow, the President has been, and must always
be, adjudged as infallible, some sort of a demi-god, whose utterances and acts
are to be held, as a matter of course, as constitutional and valid, if ever and
whenever challenged by anyone who would be willing to indulge in a legal exer-
cise in futility.
Primitivo Mijares Page 343
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Corollary to this, the “enemies” of Marcos and the state don’t stand a ghost
of a chance of ever getting a fair trial or an impartial verdict before any tribunal,
civil cr military, where they might be held — when the dictator feels like making
a public demonstration that those who are languishing in dirty and unkempt mili-
tary stockades are really facing charges.
However, let it not be said that there is no justice in the Philippines. Of
course, there is still. And this is dispensed by all courts, in criminal and civil (not
non-political) cases, only in cases where the president, or his cronies or in-laws
have no political or pecuniary interest. It is only in this area of judicial
undertaking that the courts can dispense justice "without fear or favor."
As stated earlier, the major reason for the shameless docility and fawning
servility of the members of the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, to the
President on matters affecting the martial law regime is the climate of fear and
coercion so successfully created by Marcos.
The fact that a judge can be dismissed from the service for any fancied
cause or no reason at all by simply accepting his resignation as submitted in
accordance with the requirements of Letter of Instruction Nos. 11 is an
ingredient of such climate of fear.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Jose B. L Reyes, who now heads the
Integrated Bar of the Philippines, found an occasion to protest that the
resignations were being held by the President, by his inaction on them, as a
virtual "Sword of Damocles" over their heads.
In a letter to Marcos dated Nov. 21 , 1 973, JBL pointed out' that even under
the new Constitution, acceptance of resignations had to be exercised within a
reasonable and definite period of time "and under the 1935 Constitution any
judicial reorganization had to be completed within one year."
The retired justice drove home his point this way:
"The indefinite uncertainty as to the actual tenure of judges undermines the
independence of the judiciary, which is one of the cornerstones of due process
and the main guarantee that the people's liberties and rights will be protected."
Failing to get a reply from either Malacanang or the Department of Justice,
a frustrated JBL directed his plea, one year later (Nov. 21, 1974) to the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, calling the latter's attention to the insecurity of
judicial tenure. He suggested that the chief justice might have better luck with
Marcos in curing the problem. In the meantime, the President had exercised
his claimed power of arbitrary removal of judges.
In September, 1974, all 81 Catholic bishops in the Philippines wrote the
President a letter, asking, among others, that Marcos put an end to the tenuous
situation of judges. Quoting the 1973 year-end report of the Integrated Bar of
the Philippines, the letter of the bishops wrote:
"x x x the judges have all become casuals. They can be removed at
anytime, and what is worse, Ihey don't even have to know they have been
removed. All the President has to do is appoint a successor."
One of the means which the President has found most effective to bend
the will of the Supreme Court to his liking is the scheme of his calculated leaks
on his plans for the high court should he ever be rebuffed by the judiciary.
Every time the high court would be called upon to decide a suit against the
President or the regime, he would mount a forum to warn the justices that an
assertion of judicial independence would result in the loss of their jobs.
Primitivo Mijares Page 3 44
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The message is usually beamed in this wise: If the President did not draw
the support of all sectors, he might be compelled to dismantle the existing
apparatus of martial law and. give way to the inevitable establishment of a
revolutionary government run by a military junta. (Aside: there goes the
Supreme Court.)
Apologists of the President will probably make capital of the fact, that
despite the provisions of General Order No. 3, the martial regime has shown a
healthy respect for the Supreme Court by submitting to its jurisdiction in all
cases brought before it.
How true, how true. But equally true is the fact that those messages about
the organization of a revolutionary government have been beamed a number
of times to the high court.
Any lawyer worth his salt would readily admit that the suspension, of the
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is a crude limitation upon the judicial
function and the process. The Philippine Supreme Court has not overturned the
official position of the martial regime on the automatic suspension of the "writ"
by the imposition of martial law.
The "queer" behavior of the Supreme Court finds dramatic demonstration
in the case of former Senator Bcmgno S. Aquino. Jr., held in the stockade since
the night of Sept. 22, 1972.
Because the Marcos administration wanted to convince world opinion that
it had a case against "Ninoy" Aquino, charges of illegal possession of firearms
and subversion on three counts were filed, and scheduled for public trial, before
a military court in August. 1 973.
Aquino went to the Supreme Court to challenge the jurisdiction of the
military tribunal. The prosecution asked for a delay in the military court
proceedings, and putting on a show of magnanimity, Marcos ordered the
military to suspend all trials.
The Supreme Court has yet to rule on the Aquino suit.
And yet, the high court is capable of "remarkably rapid decision making on
a matter of great import — to Marcos.
On January 21 , prisoners Aquino, Eugenio Lopez, Jr. and Sergio Osmena
III, together with five Catholic bishops and five others, filed a petition for
prohibition to stop the referendum scheduled for Feb. 27, 1975. The Solicitor
General filed his brief on Jan. 28, and a seven-hour oral argument was heard
on Jan. 30. The next day the court, quite naturally, denied the petition.
That Marcos, the methodical politician then and dictator now, has
systematically eroded the Philippine judiciary to a point of doing his will and
thus upholding his infallibility is beyond contest.
However, the moral and economic requirements of the members of the
Supreme Court also count a lot for the degradation which has hit the
administration of justice in the Philippines.
This can best be understood when we take into account the fact that
members of the Supreme Court receive annually (thanks to a presidential
decree) the handsome salary of P60.000.00.
Then consider the factor that most of them are due for retirement at age 65
within the next two years or so. Retirement should bring them a lump sum of
about P300.000.00 in addition to monthly pension equivalent to their salaries.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 3 4-5
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
These are indeed handsome considerations for the justices to fall on each
other's face to prove good behavior.
Retired Justice Calixto O. Zaldivar proved good behavior during his term,
but he suffered a little delay in the processing of his retirement papers when he
committed the slight indiscretion of making snide remarks on martial law during
a testimonial given in his honor by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. Poor
old man Zaldivar, he must have almost died when he suffered those delays in
the processing of the papers that eventually yielded him the P300.000.00
retirement lump sum pay.
On June 17, 1975, I submitted a memorandum to the Fraser committee,
embodying among other things factual allegations in support of my contention
that Marcos holds power illegally in the Philippines today. My report stated:
VIII. UNCONSTITUTIONAL CONSTITUTION
The New Constitution, on which President Marcos anchors the legality of
his holding on to the presidency after Dec. 30,1973, and of his decrees, orders,
and acts, was not validly ratified by the Filipino people.
1) Mr. Marcos issued on Jan. 17,1973, a presidential proclamation (No.
1102) in which he declared that he considered the “overwhelming vote” of the
people in the Jan. 1-15 referendum in favor of the new Constitution a
“ratification” of the said Charter. There is nothing in the Constitution (1935 or
1973) which provides for a referendum of the kind called by President Marcos.
The constitution provides for a plebiscite — not a referendum — for its
ratification.
2) Assuming that a referendum vote would have been a valid vote of
ratification of the New Constitution, there could not have been such valid vote
because there was no real referendum held on Jan. 10 to 15, 1973.
3) The figures cited in Proclamation No. 1102 — 14,976,561 in favor and
743,869 against “approval” of the Constitution — as well as the figures on the
other questions fielded in the referendum were manufactured by a group
headed by the President’s favorite brother-in-law, Gov. Benjamin Romualdez.
I was a member of that group.
4) The original three-man Commission on Elections was brought initially
into the group, but it was excluded by Gov. Romualdez on the second day when
the Commission members would not sanction what they called a “farce”. This
is the reason the chairman and one other “uncooperative” commissioner of the
Elections Commission — Jaime N. Ferrer and Lino Patajo, respectively — were
eased out of the poll body in April, 1 973.
5) As early as Jan. 1 1,1973, or on the second day of the referendum when
it became clear that the Commission on Elections would have no part in the
conduct or results of the referendum, the group manufacturing the results had
the voting figures readied for submission to the President. Secretary of Local
Government Jose Rono was tasked by Gov. Romualdez to handle the prepara-
tion of the official report to the President.
6) Having heard instructions from President Marcos on the various
questions which he wanted to address to the referendum, I knew exactly what
he wanted us to report back to him as “the vote” of the people.
Primitivo Mijares Page 346
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
7) Having been previously held out by the President as the only private
media man with ready access to him and to whom he confides some of his
plans, I was assigned by the referendum committee to take charge of the
orchestration of media. In this project, I functioned over and above, and to the
exclusion of, the official Information Secretary, with the open and official
backing of the three top presidential assistants.
8) I prepared the advance stories announcing the holding of the referendum
and dished out copies to the other newsmen covering the presidential beat.
9) In the afternoon of every referendum day, we held briefings for the local
and foreign press, during which they were handed copies of the original story I
had prepared for publication in my own paper, the Daily Express. The other
newsmen got their figures on the “votes” turned in for the day from my own
news copy.
10) On one occasion, we tried to utilize the Secretary of Information to
conduct the briefings, but he just did not prove knowledgeable about what we
wanted to deliver to the foreign newsmen that he was rudely shoved aside by
Gov. Romualdez from his own chair in the office of information secretary and
told to yield the briefing to Secretary Rono.
Marcos has made much of his alleged "submission" to the supremacy of
the Supreme Court. In his second book, he made a barefaced claim that "Our
martial law is unique in that it is based on the supremacy of the civilian authority
over the military and on complete submission to the decision of the Supreme
Court." (Italics ours).*8
(*8. Page 121 , “Notes on the New Society,” by Ferdinand E. Marcos.)
The dictator has repeatedly protested that the Supreme Court upheld the
constitutionality of his proclamation (No. 1102) declaring the ratification of the
martial law Constitution. He has said this was the ruling in the case of Javellana
vs. Executive Secretary.
Note, however, the conditions under which Marcos submitted to the
challenge as presented in the case of Javellana vs. Executive Secretary.
"Inasmuch as the issues in turn raised the question of legitimacy of the entire
Government and also to meet the insistent suggestion that, in the event of an
adverse opinion, I proclaim a revolutionary government, I decided to submit to
the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court xxx." (Italics ours).*9 (*9. Page 123, ibid.)
The implication was very clear. It the Supreme Court did not uphold Marcos,
he would organize a revolutionary government. Necessarily, he would abolish
the Supreme Court and, perhaps place its members in military stockade on a
charge that they took part in government.
The threat to organize a revolutionary government was actually a threat to
formalize what is already a matter of fact. The Supreme Court and other
adjuncts of the judiciary are complete captives of Marcos and the military.
The lone woman member of the martial law Supreme Court, Associate
Justice Cecilia Munoz-Palma, could not help hut allude to the prostrate figure
of justice in a well-applauded speech on Law Day, which coincided with the
third anniversary observance of martial law last September 19, 1975. The lady
justice called the judges and the members of the Philippine bar to "muster the
Primitivo Mijares
Page 347
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
will, the boldness, the resources, andthe perseverance to work collectively and
decisively for the maintenance of an independent judiciary." She cited the case
of a city, judge who had served in the judiciary for 22 years, and was
recommended to the Supreme Court by the Integrated Bar for promotion as
Judge of the- Court of First Instance. His "'resignation'" was "accepted" by the
President. All that the poor, defenseless judge asked was that he be informed
of the cause of his separation from the service. Apparently, not even this
request was heeded.
Under martial law, the jurisdiction of civil courts have shrunk, while the
military courts have proliferated. The cherished freedoms from unreasonable
search and seizure, and from arbitrary arrests and detention have disappeared
overnight. The right to bail, the right to a preliminary investigation
and the right to remain silent and to have counsel have all been consigned to
the dark ages.
Civil courts can no longer entertain cases involving crimes against national
security and the law of nations, or the fundamental laws of the State, those
against public order, or involving usurpation of authority, rank or title, the
improper use of names, uniforms and insignia, and those committed by public
officers and enlisted men of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, those
involving crimes relative to insurrection, sedition, rebellion or subversion 10 and
other crimes covered by general orders that from time to time are promulgated.
Marcos started creating military tribunals on September 27, 1972.*ii He
introduced certain innovations by decreeing that military courts may either be
military commissions or provost courts.*i 2
(* 10 . General Order No. 12-A, dated October 2, 1972.)
(*11. General Order No. 8, dated September 27, 1972.)
(* 12 . General Order No. 12, dated September 30, 1972.)
There are about 20 military commissions and 40 provost courts now operative.
These courts have been clothed with jurisdiction, exclusive over certain
crimes. General Order No. 49 dated October 4, 1974, is the latest re-definition
of the jurisdiction of these military courts vis-a-vis the civil courts.
Presidential Decree No. 39 dated November 7, 1972, prescribes rules
governing the creation, composition, jurisdiction, procedure and other matters
relevant to military tribunals. Under this decree, a military commission shall be
composed of not less than five members (in practice, seven members compose
a military commission, with a quorum of five to try cases). All the members are
required to be military men. Its jurisdiction covers offenses where the range of
punishment imposable is confinement for at least six (6) years and one (1 ) day,
or fine of not less than P2,000.00. All other cases are referred to a provost court
which is composed of only one (1) member called the Provost Court Officer
who must also be a member of the military.
Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure as enshnned in the 1935
Constitution disappeared with the proclamation of martial law. The pervasive
exercise of power descended upon the media of communications. Letter of
Instructions No. 1 ordered the immediate seizure and control of all the media
of communications. Printing machines were padlocked, and so were radio and
television facilities and equipment.
Primitivo Mijares Page 348
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Industrial establishments, such as the lligan Integrated Steel Mills, Inc.,
were also seized — all in the name of national defense.
Meantime, rigorous searches of residential places and commercial
premises were conducted in the course of a witchhunting holiday.
In the days before martial law, the determination of the existence of
probable cause that would justify the issuance of a warrant of arrest was a
purely judicial function. The warrant which could be issued only upon order of
a judge who must, however, determine beforehand the existence of a probable
cause therefore by following the constitutionally prescribed mode of
examination. An arrest undertaken without the proper warrant, except under a
few specific instances, would be unreasonable and illegal.
In every case, however, the person arrested must be delivered to the
proper judicial authorities without unnecessary delay and within certain fixed
periods of time, depending on the gravity of the offense for which the person
had been arrested. The necessary complaint must be filed before the
competent court. Otherwise, the continuous detention of the person arrested
would be unlawful for being arbitrary.
Under the martial law regime, Mr. Marcos himself ordered the arrest and
detention of particular individuals on the ground of national security. Many of
these persons languished under detention for months — even years — without
any charges or complaints being filed against them. Senator Jose W. Diokno
was recently released after more than two years of detention, without a charge
having been filed against him. Others, less lucky, are still detained, also without
charges.
The military has been granted blanket authority to arrest and detain
persons violating provisions of the Revised Penal Code .* 13
(*13. General Order No. 2 and subsequent amendments.)
The persons arrested were to be detained — as in fact they were detained
— and were not to be released “until otherwise ordered released by me (i.e. ,
Mr. Marcos) or by my duly designated representative.”
Meanwhile, military soldiers rounded up at night all the male residents of
particularly chosen communities, lined them up undressed beneath glaring
spotlights, and arrested whomsoever suited their fancy (especially if he bore
tatoo marks on his body). Allegedly, the purpose was to “clean” the community
of lawless elements. Anybody with the courage enough to protest was arrested.
During the good "old Society" the right of the accused to post bail, unless
he is charged with a capital offense and the evidence of guilt is strong, to secure
his release pending criminal prosecution, has always been recognized by the
civil courts.
Under the martial law regime, however, if one is charged before a military
court, he cannot post bail to secure his temporary release. For while the Chief
of Staff has been given the authority to promulgate rules and regulations
governing the release on bail of persons accused before military courts, such
rules and regulations have never been drawn up. In effect, a person accused
before a military tribunal does not enjoy any right to bail.
The martial law regime has introduced an innovation m the conduct of
preliminary investigations for the commission of crimes.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 349
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Whereas before, a respondent in a criminal case enjoyed the right to be
present at the investigation, to confront the complainant and his witnesses, and
to crossexamine the said witnesses, these rights have been eliminated by
decree.*i4
(*14. Presidential Decree No. 77 dated December 6, 1972.)
Under the said decree, mere affidavits presented by a complainant charging
a person with the commission of an offense would be sufficient basis for a
finding by the investigating officer of the existence of a prima facie case. The
person against whom the charges are levelled need not be present in order that
the preliminary investigation can proceed. Neither is it necessary that said
respondent be represented by counsel.
The 1973 Constitution provides in its Article IV, Section 20, that: "x x x Any
person under investigation for the commission of an offense shall have the right
to remain silent and to counsel, and to be informed of such right. No force,
violence, threat, intimidation, or any other means which vitiates the free will
shall be used against him. Any confession obtained in violation of this section
shall be inadmissible in evidence." This provision is not found in the 1935
Constitution.
The effective implementation of the above-quoted provision still has to be
seen. The employment of force and violence by the police authorities in
extorting a confession or admission from a person arrested and detained for
some crime is of such common knowledge that it need not be recounted here.
The military, on the other hand, are not to be outdone. If the police can employ
the "water cure", the military can do them one better. In fact, they have made
efficacious use of electricity - coursing the hot, tingling current not only on the
forefingers of the detained suspect, but also through his naked body, testicles,
or rectum, while he stands with his bare feet on wet cement.
A Joint Circular dated July 11, 1974, of the Department of Justice and
National Defense prescribed rules and regulations in the conduct of criminal
investigations with a view toward implementing the aforequoted constitutional
provision. The said circular makes it mandatory for the person being investi-
gated to be informed of his right to remain silent, that any statement he makes
therein could be used against him as evidence, and that he has a right to the
presence of counsel.
This circular, however, is a toothless measure. For one thing, it is being
ignored. For another thing, while it allows the presence of counsel if so
requested by the suspect being investigated, “the one conducting investigation
on custodial interrogation is authorized to exclude a counsel who impedes or
shows an obvious inclination to impede the administration of justice x x x.”
The circular is dead silent, however, as to what act would constitute
“impeding the administration of justice” so as to justify the exclusion of counsel.
Indeed, what the circular seems to have granted on one hand, it has taken away
with the other.
At most, the circular is an implicit admission of the atrocities being
committed by both civilian and military authorities in the conduct of criminal
investigations.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 3 SO
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Marcos has not hesitated to resort to indirect bribery in his passion to keep
the judiciary his puppet in preventing or stopping any attempt to question the
legitimacy of his dictatorship. Sometime in November. 1973, he obtained
reports from his hirelings that the Liberal Party provincial chapters would file
simultaneous suits questioning the constitutionality of Marcos' continued stay
in the presidency beyond December 30, 1973, in every appropriate Court of
First Instance. The dictator hastily announced (through me) that he was
standardizing the annual salaries of CFI judges to P40.000.00. He eventually
signed a Presidential Decree (No. 363) to that effect on January 3, 1974.
Legality. . .
Martial law was a form of Marcos' vengeance on his political foes. Marcos
has always suffered from inferiority complex placed side by side with Senators
Lorenzo M. Tanada, Gil J. Puyat, Arturo Tolentino. Jovito R. Salonga, Anibrosio
Padilla. Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., and Jose W. Diokno. He had not won any
argument against any or all of these people except to float his booming
oratorical voice. His inferiority complex when ranged against these stalwarts
challenged him, however, to turn his weakness into a spurious strength that
drew upon force, the force of martial law. I am sure Marcos still recoils in his
sleep as he recalls the humiliations he has suffered in the hands of these
stalwarts, for they have long ago discovered his deceitful and under-handed
ways in handling the affairs of state.
Marcos will never live down the stigma with which the uncowed legal minds
of the Philippines have marked him with even as he enjoys the fruits of powers
in Malacanang with his spurious strength. The Filipino people will record for
posterity — and hand it down to their generations after them - the fact that one
man ruled the Philippines in a dark period of its history as a homegrown tyrant,
and shared such powers with a meddling woman with her own ambitions and
timetable of power take-over. The records of the Marcos perfidy are preserved
rather precariously in the archives of the Supreme Court. However, there is
really a need to perpetuate them now, lest they be subjected to some incendiary
acts by the minions of Marcos. Those records deal squarely with the legality of
Marcos’ presidency.
I specifically refer to a petition for prohibition (G.R. No. L-40004) to stop the
holding of the third Philippine referendum on February 27, 1 975. In the petition,
the challenge to the legality of Marcos’ tenure was raised in the nature of quo
warranto suit (which was bound to fail, as it did fail) as a collateral issue. Former
Senator Lorenzo M. Tanada, along with his lawyer-sons, Renato E. Tanada
and Wigberto E. Tanada, appeared as counsel for petitioners Benigno S.
Aquino, Jr., Trinidad Herrera, Bishop Francisco Claver, S.J., Bishop Antonio
Nepomuceno, Bishop Jesus Varela, Bishop Felix Zafra, Bishop Teotimo Pads,
Eugenio Lopez, Jr., Sergio Osmena III, Antonio Araneta, Antonio Miranda, Raul
Gonzales, Joker Arroyo and Emilio de Peralta. The issue raised was the very
constitutionality of Marcos' presidency.
Humbly as a lawyer, with a greater grasp of the infrastructuring done by
Marcos for his martial regime, I concur with the position taken by the brave
petitioners in the case. And yet, I feel I would be remiss in my duty if I did not
record here the doubts 1 entertained over the filing of the petition. I had already
defected in the United States when the petition was filed with the Supreme
Court. From 10.000 miles, I could sec that Marcos himself welcomed the new
Primitivo Mijares Page 3 51
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
suit as something like an action to quiet (his) title or remove a cloud on the
legitimacy of his stay in Malacanang. The Supreme Court was his captive after
all. I have no reason, however, to doubt the sense of patriotism that goaded
Tanada to file the petition.
I reproduce hereunder pertinent portions of the petition to become part of
this work, with certain corrections, and pass them on to historv for judgment.
The thrust of the Tanada petition is that Marcos is 1) no longer President
under the 1935 Constitution; Z) not President nor Prime Minister, interim or
otherwise, under the 1973Constitution; 3) not the "incumbent" President
referred to in the transitory provisions of the 1 973 Constitution! and 4) that, even
if he were President under the above three items, his transitory powers under
the 1973 Constitution have lapsed.
Under the 1935 Constitution, President Marcos
ceased to be President on December 30. 1973 -
President Ferdinand E. Marcos was elected to his first term in November.
1965. and that term ended on December 30. 1969 (Art. VI, Sec. 4. 1935
Constitution). He was elected for a second term in November, 1969, and that
term ended on March 31 , 1 973 when this Court, in the Ratification Cases, ruled
that the 1973 Constitution may be considered in force and effect. Furthermore,
even if the 1 935 Constitution were still in force, his term of office uld have ended
on December 30, 1973 without holdover (Art. VII, Sec. 4, 1935 Constitution).
Therefore, the continuance in office by President Marcos, after December
30, 1973, as President of the Philippines, is clearly and absolutely illegal under
the 1935 Constitution; and he cannot now exercise the power and prerogatives
of President under said Constitution.
President Marcos not elected to presidency
or any other office after December 30, 1973 -
Nor is President Marcos the President or Prime Minister, interim or
otherwise, under the 1973 Constitution, because only thenational assembly
may elect the President and the Prime Minister, and President Marcos has
never convened the Assembly.
Since President Marcos ceased to be President under the 1935
Constitution, he cannot lawfully exercise the powers of any public office under
either Constitution.
President Marcos not the"lncumbent President"
undertransitory provisions —
It Cannot be validly contended that, despite the above facts. President
Marcos can still exercise the powers of the President under the 1935
Constitution and of President and Prime Minister under the 1973 Constitution
by virtue of Section 3(1) of the Transitory Provisions of the 1973 Constitution,
which reads as follows:
"SEC. 3. (1) The incumbent President of the Philippines shall initially
convene the interim National Assembly and shall preside over its sessions until
Primitivo Mijares Page 35Z
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
the interim Speaker shall have been elected. He shall continue to exercise his
powers and prerogatives under the nineteen hundred and thirty-five
Constitution and the powers vested in the President and the Prime Minister
under this Constitution until he calls upon the interim National Assembly to elect
the interim President and the interim Prime Minister, who shall then exercise
their respective powers vested by this Constitution."
This is so because the phrase "incumbent President" used in this and in
other transitory provisions refers to whoever was lawfully President of the
Philippines — not on November 30, 1972 when the Convention adopted the
Draft of the 1973 Constitution — but on whatever date the people ratified the
1973 Constitution in a plebiscite called for the purpose (Sec. 16, Art. XVII, 1 973
Constitution). President Marcos was lawful President on November 30, 1972.
But he is not now - and cannot now be - lawful President upon ratification of the
1973 Constitution because said Constitution has not yet been submitted to the
people for ratification in a plebiscite called for that purpose, and, as six (6)
Justices out of the ten (10) then constituting the Court have ruled, said
Constitution has not been validly ratified: —
"On the second question of validity of the ratification. Justices Makalintal,
Zaldivar, Castro, Fernando, T eehankee and myself (Chief Justice Concepcion),
or six (6) members of the Court also hold that the Constitution proposed by the
1971 Constitutional Convention was not validly ratified in accordance with
Article XV, Section 1 of the 1935 Constitution, which provides only one way for
ratification, i.e., 'in an election or plebiscite held in accordance with law and
participated in only by qualified and duly registered voters.* M Resolution in
Jose Javellana vs. The Executive Secretary, el at. G.R. No. L-361 42 and other
four ratification cases, G.R. Nos. L-361 64, L-361 65, L-36236 & L-36283; 50
SCRA 30, 138-139; words in parenthesis supplied.)
It is only "being considered in force and effect" —
"ACCORDINGLY, by virtue of the majority of six (6) votes of Justices
Makalintal, Castro, Barredo, Makasiar, Antonio and Esguerra with the four (4)
dissenting votes of the Chief Justice and Justices Zaldivar, Fernando and
Teehankee, all the aforementioned cases are hereby dismissed. This being the
vote of the majority, there is no further judicial obstacle to the new Constitution
being considered in force and effect. " Id., at p. 141; italics ours.)
Since the phrase "incumbent President" refers to the lawful President on
whatever date the 1973 Constitution might be ratified by the people in a
plebiscite called for that purpose, since the said Constitution has never been
so ratified; and since President Marcos ceased to be the lawful President on
December 30, 1973, he is not now and cannot be the "incumbent President"
mentioned in the transitory provisions of the 1 973 Constitution.
Therefore, President Marcos cannot lawfully exercise any powers and
prerogatives conferred on the "incumbent President" by the said Constitution.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Powers under Transitory Provisions have lapsed —
But let us assume that the decision of this Court in the Ratification Cases is
equivalent to a ratification of the 1973 Constitution, so that President Marcos is
the "incumbent President" referred to in said Constitution. Can he exercise now
the powers and prerogatives conferred upon him by the transitory provisions of
that constitution?
Petitioners submit that he cannot, because the clear intent ard meaning of
the transitory provisions is that the powers and prerogatives it confers upon the
"incumbent President" lapse unless exercised as soon as possible after the
effectivity of the Constitution or at the very latest, before the end of the term for
which he has been elected as President under the 1935 Constitution. And, for
President Marcos, that term ended long ago.
This is crystal clear from the very character and language of the transitory
provisions, from the nature of the principal changes in the structure of
government that the 1973 Constitution introduces, and from the disastrous
consequences that would result from a contrary interpretation.
Transitory Provisions fleeting by nature —
It is the very nature of transitory provisions that they be "of a passing
nature", "temporary, fleeting or ephemeral", "not enduring or permanent"
(Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language. 1966 ed., p.
1547). This being so, the powers conferred by transitory provisions cannot be
exercised indefinitely; they must end after some time; and that time must be
short or fleeting. Therefore, they must be exercised as soon as possible; if not,
they lapse.
To hold otherwise is to make such transitory powers permanent,
exercisable during the lifetime of the "incumbent President". This is not and
could not be the intent of the 1973 Constitution, surely, no one can seriously
contend that the Convention or the people intended to make President Marcos
the "incumbent President" for life, an "incumbent President" who could,
moreover, during his lifetime rule by himself alone, and by his sole decisions
determine the destiny of more than 40 million Filipinos.
Yet that would be the result if the transitory provisions were interpreted to
mean that simply because he was the "incumbent President" when the 1973
Constitution was considered in force and effect, President Marcos may
continue to exercise all the transitory powers under said Constitution indefinitely
or for as long as he wants to do so. And that could be during his entire lifetime.
We must never forget that both the 1935 and 1973 constitutions were
ordained and promulgated to secure for all Filipinos of today and tomorrow "the
blessings of democracy" and a regime of justice (and) liberty. (Preambles, 1935
and 1973 Constitutions). Every clause of the 1973 Constitution must therefore
be so interpreted as to achieve these ideals and aspirations. There is only one
interpretation of Section 3 (1) of the transitory provisions that would be
consistent with these aspirations. And that interpretation is that the transitory
powers of the "incumbent President" lapse if not exercised as soon as possible
after the effectivity of the 1973 Corstitution or at most only during the term for
which the people had elected him President.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 3 54-
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Intent clear from language of 1973 Constitution -
The language of the 1973 Constitution manifests this indubitable intention.
Sections 1 and 3 of the Transitory Provisions, viewed in the light of other
sections, clearly show it.
Before conferring transitory powers upon the "incumbent President" in
Section 3 (1) of the transitory provisions, the 1973 Constitution provides that
"there shall be an interim National Assembly which shall exist immediately upon
. . . ratification" (Sec. 1, Art. XVII); that the members of the interim Assembly
"may take their oath of office. . . and qualify . . . after . . . ratification of the
Constitution" (Sec. 2 Art. XVII); and that the "incumbent President. . . shall
initially convene the interim National Assembly" (Sec. 3 (1) Art. XVII). It is only
after these provisions that transitory powers are conferred upon the "incumbent
President", which powers he shall "continue to exercise. . . until he calls upon
the interim National Assembly to elect the interim President and the interim
Prime Minister".
What are these transitory powers? When do they begin? When shall they
end?
The answer is plain: the transitory powers consist of the powers of the
President under the 1935 Constitution. These powers obviously existed before
the 1973 Constitution took effect. To obviate the possibility of their being
considered terminated upon the ratification of the 1973 Constitution, the latter
provides that the incumbent President "shall continue to exercise" them.
The transitory powers also consist, second, of the powers of the President
and the Prime Minister under the 1 973 Constitution. These powers did not exist
before the new Constitution took effect. Hence the phrase "continue to
exercise" cannot apply to these powers. But these powers did come into
existence upon the effectivity of the 1973 Constitution.
Can these powers be exercised from that date? No, because insofar as
these powers differ from the powers of the President under the 1935
Constitution, they require the existence of the interim National Assembly before
the "incumbent President" can exercise them.
For example. Art. VII, Sec. 6 of the 1973 Constitution gives the President
the power, among others, to address or dissolve the National Assembly. Unless
the interim National Assembly has first been convened, the incumbent
President obviously cannot exercise these powers, for there is no one he can
address and nothing he can dissolve.
Similarly , Art. IX, Sec. 5 of the 1973 Constitution empowers the Prime
Minister to "appo;nt the Deputy Prime Minister from among the Members of the
National Assembly". Until the interim National Assembly has been convened
and its Members have qualified, the incumbent President obviously cannot
exercise this power, for there is no one he can appoint.
The same holds true with respect to the other powers of the President and
the Prime Minister under the 1973 Constitution, except for the power granted
by Art. XIV, Sec. 15 of the 1973 Constitution.
Therefore, the second group of transitory powers cannot be exercised until
the interim Assembly has been convened. That is why the grant of transitory
powers is preceded, in Section 3 (1), by the directive to convene the interim
Assembly, which, according to Section 1, shall "exist immediately."
When do the transitory powers of the "incumbent President" end?
Primitivo Mijares Page 3 55
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
If the Assembly is convened, all transitory powers come to an end when the
interim President and interim Prime Minister are elected, because upon their
election, they will exercise the powers only of their respective offices as vested
in the 1973 Constitution (Sees. 3 (1) and 4, Art. XVII). But if the interim
Assembly is not convened, then, as abovestated, the second kind of transitory
powers, by their very nature, cannot be exercised at all, and the first kind - the
powers of the President under the 1 935 Constitution - will end when he fails to
comply with his constitutional duty to convene the interim Assembly as soon as
possible after the effectivity of the 1973 Constitution on March 31, 1973 or, at
the latest, on December 30, 1973 when his term as President under the 1935
Constitution would end.
Raison d'Etre of 1973 Constitution would be frustrated —
To hold otherwise is to hold that the 1973 Constitution intended, first,- to
allow President Marcos, by his sole act, to extend his term of office indefinitely;
and second - which is worse - to allow him to frustrate indefinitely the
implementation of the major change that is the raison d'etre of the 1973
Constitution: the implantation of a parliamentary form of government in this
land.
Putting it bluntly, to hold that President Marcos could exercise transitory
powers beyond his term under the 1935 Constitution is to hold that both the
Convention and the people intended that, between the Presidential democracy
of the 1935 Constitution and the Parliamentary democracy of the 1973
Constitution, our nation would have to go through a transitional period of
Presidential dictatorship that could last throughout President Marcos' lifetime.
Such an intention, so clearly contrary to both Section 26 of Art. VI of the 1935
Constitution and Section 15 of Art. VIII of the 1973 Constitution, and so clearly
violative of the values of freedom and democracy that every Filipino treasures,
is nothing less than absurd.
Disastrous consequences of contrary interpretation —
Other pernicious consequences would result from the interpretation that
President Marcos may continue to exercise transitory powers indefinitely, even
long after December 30, 1973. Some of these consequences, indeed, are
already upon us.
Constitutional officers guilty of treason or corruption can not be
impeached or removed —
One is that constitutional officers become immune to impeachment and
removal even it they commit the most heinous crimes.
In addition to the primary duty to enact measures for the orderly transition
from the presidential to the parliamentary system and the reorganization of the
government, and to its general powers of legislation, the interim National
Assembly may exercise the powers of impeachment (Art. XIII Sec. 3),
ratification of treaties (Art. VIII, Sec. 14, par. (1), creation of the special court to
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Page 3S6>
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
be known as Sandiganbayan and the office of Ombudsman to be known as
Tanodbayan (Art. XIII, See. 6)
The "incumbent President" cannot exercise these powers. Even if he could
exercise all the powers of the President under the 1 935 Constitution and those
of the President and Prime Minister under the 1935 Constitution and those of
the President and Prime Minister under the 1973 Constitution, he cannot
exercise the powers of impeachment or ratification of treaties or creation of the
Sandiganbayan and the office of Ombudsman to be known as Tanodbayan
without the interim National Assembly; and there is no Assembly interim or
otherwise.
Unless there is a body that can exercise these powers, the consequence is
that Justices of the Supreme Court of Appeals, members of the Civil Service
Commission, of the Commission on Elections and of the Commission on Audit
- even if caught in the act of treason, bribery, or graft and corruption - cannot
be impeached or removed. Surely, the Convention and the people could not
have intended that such a state of affairs should last indefinitely.
On the contrary, the 1973 Constitution directs immediate action. This is
evident from the provision of the Constitution which requires the interim
National Assembly to "give priority to measures for the eradication of graft and
corruption" (Art. XVII, Sec. 5).
The only conclusion that flows from all these is that there can be no
indefinite stay in convening the interim National Assembly. The "incumbent
President" must convene it as soon as possible after the cffectivity of the 1973
Constitution, and at the latest during his term as President. If he fails to do so,
as he has, he loses all transitory powers.
No independent Judiciary: No security of tenure for Civil Service —
Another disastrous consequence, one already upon us, that results from
the claim to exercise transitory powers indefinitely is that our inferior courts
have lost their independence and our civil service its security of tenure.
Sections 9 and 10 of the transitory provisions empower the "incumbent
President" to remove all who, at the effectivity of the new Constitution, were
members of the Judiciary and of the civil service, by simply appointing their
successors. If it be held that this transitory power may be exercised without first
convening the National Assembly, and even after December 30, 1973, the
effect would be that all Judges and Justices holding office on the date of the
effectivity of the 1973 Constitution, and who have not been reappointed, can
be removed at will and without cause, even before they reach the age of 70
years, and this situation can last as long as President Marcos wants it to. In the
pungent language of the President of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, "our
judges have become casuals."
The same holds true of the civil service.
This state of affairs is so contrary to the ideal of an independent judiciary
and civil service, based upon security of tenure, that is inconceivable that the
Convention and the people could have intended it to continue beyond
December 30, 1973.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 357
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
No orderly succession to Head of State -
Both nature and law abhor a vacuum. That is the reason for transitory
provisions. The framers of the 1973 Constitution knew that, upon its effectivity,
the office of the Vice-President under the 1935 Constitution would be
automatically abolished. Therefore, thev knew that, if anything happened to
the "incumbent President" before he convened the interim Assembly, there
would be a vacuum in the most vital of all offices under the 1973 Constitution,
the Office of Head of State, made doubly vital by the existence of martial rule.
Their experience and their knowledge of human nature also taught them that,
since the vacuum had not been filled by law, it would, in all probability, be filled
by force with all its bloody consequences.
Certainly, it could not have been the intention of the Convention and of the
people that such a dangerous situation would continue for long. Rather, their
intent was - and the tenor of the transitory provisions shows it — that the
"incumbent President" should convene the interim National Assembly as soon
as possible so that this vacuum could be filled and the danger of sanguinary
internecine conflict thereby averted.
This reinforces the conclusion that the incumbent President should exercise
his transitory powers immediately or at the most before December 30, 1973. If
he fails to do so, his transitory powers expire.
What is President Marcos today ? —
President Marcos is definitely not President under the 1935 Constitution
because his term of office as such President has expired.
He is not President nor Prime Minister, interim or otherwise under the 1 935
Constitution because he has not been elected to either office.
He is not the “incumbent President” referred to in the transitory provisions
of the 1973 Constitution because the provisions refer to whoever might be
President when the said Constitution is ratified, and since, according to this
Court, the said Constitution has not been validly ratified ( Javellana vs. The
Executive Secretary, 50 SCRA 30, 138-139), and since President Marcos'
term of office as President expired on December 30, 1973, he is not now and
cannot now be the "incumbent President".
Finally, even assuming that President Marcos is the "incumbent President"
referred to in the transitory provisions, he cannot now exercise any of the
transitory powers conferred upon him by the said Constitution because all such
powers lapsed when he did not perform his constitutional duty to convene the
interim National Assembly "immediately" after the 1973 Constitution had taken
effect, or at the latest, when the term to which he had been elected by the
people ended on December 30, 1 973.
What, therefore, is President Marcos today? What powers of government
can he exercise?
These questions answer themselves.
ASSUMING FOR PURPOSES OF ARGUMENT ALONE THAT
PRESIDENT MARCOS MAY STILL HOLD OFFICE AS PRESIDENT DESPITE
THE EXPIRATION OF HIS TERM UNDER THE 1935 CONSTITUTION, HE
DOES NOT HAVE ANY LAWFUL AUTHORITY TO PROMULGATE LAWS OR
Primitivo Mijares Page 3 58
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
ORDERS WITH THE EFFECT OF LAWS EITHER UNDER THE 1 935 OR THE
1973 CONSTITUTION AND, THEREFORE, HAS NO AUTHORITY TOCALL
THE REFERENDUM.
Both under the 1935 Constitution and the 1973 Constitution the legislative
power is lodoed in the legislature:
"Section 1. The legislative power shall be vested in a Congress of the
Philippines, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives."
(Art. VI, Sec. 1, 1935 Constitution).
"Section 1. The legislative power shall be vetted in a National Assembly." (Art.
VIII. Sec. 1973 Constitution).
President Marcos cannot exercise legislative powers —
As a private citizen. President Marcos docs not possess legislative power
or any other powers of government. Even as "incumbent President", his
transitory powers - assuming they have not lapsed - are purely executive
powers.
As incumbent President, he has the powers of the President under the 1 935
Constitution; but that Constitution did not confer any legislative powers on the
President. He also has the powers of President and Prime Minister under the
1973 Constitution; but the latter confers no legislative powers either on the
President or Prune Minister. Congress did not grant hrm sny emergency
powers under Section 26. Art. VI of the 1935 Constitution, although it could
have done so because it was in session when he declared martial law. The
National Assembly has not granted him any emergency powers either under
Section 15 of Art. VII of the 1973 Constitution, and it could not have done so
because he has never convened it. So, as "incumbent President" under Section
3 (1) of the Transitory Provisions, President Marcos has no legislative powers
at all.
Martial Law does not give President Marcos legislative powers -
It cannot validly be considered that the declaration of martial law on
September 21, 1972 gave President Marcos any legislative powers.
Martial law gives no powers to the President (III Willoughby 592), and as
the Constitution is the Basic Law, in times of crises more than in times of
normalcy, the national emergency merely affords the basis or reason for the
exercise of a living power already existing or enjoyed (Wilson v. Reed, 243 US
332): it does not create power, nor increase granted power or remove or
diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved (Home
Building & Loan Assoc, v. Blaisdell, 290 US 398).
Section 3 (2) of the T ransitory Provisions confirms this. If the proclamations,
decrees, orders and others and other acts done under martial law prior to the
effectivity of the 1 973 Constitution had had the force of law, there was no need
to make them "part of the law of the land" as Section 3 (2) of the Transitory
Provisions does. And if martial law automatically granted President Marcos
Primitivo Mijares Page 354
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
legislative powers, then there was no need to confer upon hira the power to
"modify, revoke or supersede" his orders, proclamations, decrees, etc.
Any doubt about whether President Marcos does or does not have
legislative powers under martial rule is dispelled by Section 7 of the Transitory
Provisions. For, under this section, all laws existing at the time of the effeetivity
of the 1973 Constitution continue in force insofar as aot inconsistent with said
Constitution, snd only the regular Assembly - not President Marcos - can
amend, modify or repeal them.
Assuming President Marcos has legislative powers, these do not
include calling a Referendum —
Even if we assume that martial law grants legislative powers to President
Marcos - a proposition we do not concede - he may not perform any legislative
act that the legislative itself could not do.
Calling s referendum is essentially a legislative act, which can be performed
only in the manner and for the purpose prescribed in the Constitution.
"Referendum is the right reserved by the Constitution to the people of a
state or local subdivision thereof to have submitted for their approval or
rejection any act, or part of any act, item, section, or part of any bill, passed by
the legislature, and which, in most cases, would without action on the part of
the electors become a law/' (82 C.J.S.I93).
"There can be no valid referendum of any enacted law except pursuant to
constitutional authority. By the referendum the people are a coordinate branch
of the legislative body, with coextensive power." (82 C.J.S. 197).
There are grave doubts, too, over the constitutionality of Marcos’ invoking
of the “commander-in-chief provision of the Constitution as authority for
declaring martial law.
If Marcos’ own rhetorical development of the “causes” for his declaration of
martial law were to be followed, then he could not legally invoke the
“commander-in-chief provision to impose martial law. In the final “whereas” of
Proclamation No. 1 081 , Marcos declared: “x x x the rebellion and armed action
undertaken by these lawless elements of the communist and other armed
aggrupations organized to overthrow the Republic of the Philippines by armed
violence and force have assumed the magnitude of an actual state of war
against our people and the Republic of the Philippines.” (Italics supplied). If
such had been the case, then the constitutional thing for Marcos to have done
was to ask Congress to declare war by two-thirds votes of both chambers voting
separately. And, with Congress having declared war, Marcos would have had
to carry out the instructions of Congress on the conduct of the war as the
“commander-in-chief of all the armed forces.* 15
(*15. Raoul Berger’s “Executive Privilege: A Constitutional Myth” is very
enlightening on this subject.)
The question is whether or not the President, as commander-in-chief
“waging war” without congressional authority, can rule by decree, suppress or
disband one branch of government, as he did with the bicameral Philippine
Congress, while allowing other agencies to function, like the Supreme Court —
Primitivo Mijares
Page 36C>
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
which he needs only to anoint his regime with legitimacy. Then, if the courts are
open and can administer justice, as Marcos claims they do, is there a real and
actual emergency for which martial law has to be maintained? Marcos must
realize the incongruity of his position. At the moment, he can rule by the law of
the gun. Before the bar of history, he would be a faceless litigant.
The Martial Law Constitution was approved by tke Constitutional
Convention on November 30, 1972, under pressure from the guns of martial
law. The delegates did not have any other choice. However, the handful of
courageous hearts wjio dared vote againt the Msrcos-dictated Constitution
voiced the hope that the Martial Law Constitution would be rejected by the
people during a plebiscite to be called to either ratify or reject tne new charter
draft. President Marcos did in fact schedule a plebiscite on the new Constitution
for January 5, 1 973, and proclaimed a period of "free and untrammeled" debate
during the campaign for ratification or rejection of the New Constitution.*i6
Marcos soon discovered though that the new Charter which would "legalize"
his martial law regime did not stand a ghost of a chance of adoption in a free
plebiscite. He immediately cancelled the scheduled plebiscite, and instead
called for a national referendum on various "burning issues" of national
import.*i7
(*16. Presidential Decree No. 73, dated December 1, 1972, and Presidential
Decree No. 82, dated December 18,1972.)
(*17. Presidential Decree No. 86, dated December 31,1972. Two other decrees,
PD Nos. 86-A and 86-B, bearing on the submission of the martial law Constitu-
tion to a referendum have been withheld from general circulation.)
In efforts to falsify the records for history, Marcos later wrote:
"There was, however, another question regarding my swift action on the
Constitution, and I can understand how this must have bothered the legal
"constructionists" among us. On 30 November 1972,1 called a plebiscite after
the Constitutional Convention had approved the new Constitution; this
plebiscite was set for 5 January 1 973. But on December 23, 1 972, 1 suspended
the plebiscite upon the petition of some parties, including jurists, who pointed
out that a longer period was necessary to prepare the citizenry and thoroughly
inform them about the Constitution. And yet right after I had suspended the
plebiscite, I immediately organized the barangays and called for a show of
hands regarding the new Constitution on 1 0 to 1 5 January this year. Why this
sudden decision on my part?
"I know that some old society politicians thought it was their 'eloquent' and
'brilliant' opposition which precipitated my action. This was understandable, for
they could not have imagined that the truth was that martial law had peculiar
ramifications in the Muslim areas, which were one of the sources of a three-
pronged rebellion and conspiracy that included the communist rebels, the
rightist conspirators and the Musjim secessionist, xxx
"The only possible maneuver dictated by the national interest was to meet
this incipient 'splinter state' with a government and a republic duly supported by
the great majority of the people, especially the Muslim citizenry, operating
under a Constitution of their own making and already ratified so as to be
enforceable by the government.''*i8 (*18. “Notes on the New Society”, pp. 125-129.)
Primitivo Mijares Page 361
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Again, Marcos was not being candid about things. The truth was that the
danger he foresaw was directed at him personally. It. was a decision arrived at
by members of the Philippine Senate to convene Congress in regular session
on the fourth Monday of January in 1973. This was a decision forged during a
caucus of sectors presided over by Senate President Gil J. Puyat on December
24, 1972. The senators aiso forged an accord with their colleagues from the
House of Representatives that they would work against the ratification of the,
martial law Constitution. Thev realized that it would only legalize the
dictatorship of Marcos.
In his mad desire to head off a congressional session, Marcos cancelled
the plebiscite on the new Constitution. Forthwith, he convened the baranggays
for a show of hinds on the new charter. He figured that he must have a new
Constitution that wonld enable him to stop Congress from convening. That was
the reason for the indecent hate with which he proclaimed on January-1 7, 1 973,
the "ratification" of the Constitution by the baranggays. Congress was
scheduled to meet on January 22, 1 973.
There was one other compelling motive for Marcos to abolish Congress. He
knew that members of Congress were rallying behind senate President Puyat
to make him a "constitutional President" upon the expiration of the constitutional
term of Marcos by December 30, 1973. Still very fresh in the memory of both
Marcos and the members of Congress was the theory developed by imprisoned
Senator Diokno in a privileged speech in the Senate, entitled "A Throne of
Bayonets." In that speech, delivered about mid-July, 1972, Diokno declared
that Marcos might declare martial law in order to stay in office beyond
December 30, 1973.
Neither a genuine cause like social anarchy or foreign invasion nor a
gratuitous declaration of martial law "would give President Marcos the right to
remain as head of state under our Constitution," Diokno said. Not President
Marcos, but the Senate President, whoever he may then be, is the only one
who would have the right to act as President beginning noon T>ecember 30,
1973. No amount of manipulation of the law will enable President Marcos to
remain in office legally after that date. Only naked force could achieve it.
"Some laws," according to Diokno. "provide that a public officer continues
in office 'until his successor shall have been elected and qualified.' But with
respect to the President, Article VII, Section 4 of the Constitution is explicit: his
term 'shall end at noon on the thirtieth day of December', four years tfter his
election and the term of his successor 'shall begin from such time.' Our
Constitution does not permit the President to hold over."
“In the case of President Marcos,” Diokno went on, “the prohibition against
his holding over after December 30, 1973, is even more stringent.
“Art VII, Section 5 of our Constitution is clear ‘No person shall serve as
President for more than eight consecutive years’. He cannot interrupt this
period by ‘voluntary renunciation of the office for any length of time.’
“By noon of December 30,1973, President Marcos will have served as
President for eight years. He cannot — constitutionally — serve one minute
more.”
The case of President Quezon further clarifies this point. His eight-year
tenure expired at the most exigent time of the war against Japan. “To enable
him to continue to serve as President” the American government in a joint
Primitivo Mijares Page 362.
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
resolution of Congress suspended “the provisions of our Constitution concern-
ing the Presidency, thus extending President Quezon’s term,” Diokno pointed
out. At that time, the Philippines was a commonwealth and its Constitution was
subordinate to the American government.
“Today,” Diokno maintained, “no one can suspend our Constitution, not
even constitutionally, not even by martial law.” He added that under Section 10
of the Election Code of 1971, it is not the President but only the Commission
on Elections, subject to the approval of the Supreme Court, who can suspend
an election.”
Furthermore, Diokno continued, even if Marcos were to pack the
Commission on Elections and the Supreme Court with his lackeys and the
elections were suspended in 1 973, not he but the Senate President alone could
legally occupy the office and discharge the duties of chief executive until one
properly elected and qualified to do so.
Diokno rejected the most common notion that martial law would make the
Philippines fall helplessly into the hands of a usurper-dictator. If martial law
were declared and noon December 30, 1973, had passed, the armed forces of
the Philippines would have to see to it that Marcos vacated the presidency and
the Senate President occupied the position until a successor had been elected
and qualified.
The thesis developed by Diokno gained s© much popular adherence that
Marcos had to make sure that the Batangas senator was kept in a military
stockade while he maneuvered to legitimize his illegal presidency. He waited
until the ruling of the Supreme Court on the case of Javellana vs. Executive
Secretary became final before he released Diokno from a military jail.
Marcos provided the naked force, as Diokno had feared, by declaring
martial law, extorting a Palace-drafted Constitution from the Constitutional
Convention and then whimsically declaring it to have been ratified in a farcical
referendum.
I immediately gleaned the motive of the President when he decided to call
a referendum. He actually spelled out his plans in a conference which I
attended, along with Gov. Benjamin Romualdez, Secretary of Local
Government Jose Rono, and Presidential Assistant Guillermo C. De Vega. He
wanted, he said, a vehicle for the “approval” of the New Constitution by
the Filipino people without having to go through the dangerous mechanics of a
plebiscite. Thus, he scheduled a referendum among the Citizens’ Assemblies
in more than 35,000 barrios and barangay districts all over the country from
Jan. 10 to 15, 1973. Six questions were addressed to the barangay voters,
although actually only two of them were of vital importance at the time for
President Marcos. These two questions were:
1) Do you approve of the New Constitution?
2) Do you want a plebiscite to be called to ratify the new Constitution?
As proclaimed officially on Jan. 17,1973, by President Marcos, who never
batted an eyelash while reading Proclamation No. 1 1 02, the two questions were
“answered” by the barangay voters in the following manner
1) Yes - 14,976,561 ; No - 743,852; Abstention - 829,991
2) Yes — 1,322,434; No — 14,298,814; Abstention — 909,173
The orchestration of the “ratification” of the martial law Constitution did not
Primitivo Mijares Page 363
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
by any means end with the issuance of Proclamation No. 1102. The “final
arbiter” of all justiciable questions was called in to put its stamp of legality on
Marcos ratification of the charter through the case of Javellana vs. Executive
Secretary.
"Today, you are my judges. Tomorrow, history will judge you."
This was the final statement of imprisoned Sen. Benigno S. Aquino Jr. on
March 31 , 1 975, before a military commission before he went on a hunger strike
to dramatize his challenge to the jurisdiction of the military kangaroo court
convened to "perpetuate" testimonies of prosecution witnesses on charges
concocted by President Marcos against the Tarlac senator.
But the reminder might as well have been addressed to the honorable
members of the Supreme Court. One cannot expect any’of the members of the
Supreme Court to vote or rule against President Marcos these days. The truth
is that most Supreme Court justices would stumble over each other's faces to
please tfce great Mr. Marcos. For one thing, they are scared for their lives;
another, they are all about to retire, and they cannot afford to jeopardize a
retirement pay of five-years' lump sum by a lousy vote that might displease
Marcos.
The Supreme Court of the Philippines exists today for only one main
function, namely, to maintain the legitimacy of the military regime of Marcos.
Marcos very well realizes that his regime has to have a facade of legitimacy,
otherwise he would lose the support of his own military backers and the
international community. Marcos has thus far succeeded in misleading his own
military backers and some world leaders into a belief that he rules by the
consent of the governed.
Marcos not only holds the members of the Supreme Court by their balls,
but he also makes sure that they do not ad-lib accidentally. He insures the good
behavior of the members of the high court by having decisions on cases vitally
important to the personal and political interests of Marcos drafted in
Malacanang. Whenever 'the martial regime is challenged in a court suit, a draft
decision is first prepared by Undersecretary of Justice Efren Plana and Ronaldo
B. Zamora, of the Malacanang legal office. It is then sent to the office of De
Vega to furnish members of the Supreme Court, especially Justices Antonio P.
Barredo, Claudio Teehankee, Estanislao A. Fernandez, Felix Makasiar and
Fred Ruiz Castro. With some slight modifications, the Malacanang draft of the
decision eventually becomes the basis of the majority Supreme Court decision.
Such was the case in the constitutional challenges filed against martial law
itself, and in the challenge to the ratification by Marcos of the 1 973 Constitution.
In most instances, when one reads those "majority decisions", he cannot but
come to a conclusion that they were not majority decisions at all. Apparently
bearing in mind the warning of Aquino about the judgment of history, most
justices, although "concurring in the results" of the majority decision, pen their
own Concurring dissenting opinions, a reading of which would lead any sane
man to demand to know why they did not vote against the majority decision. It
is clear that while they want to save their neck from the chopping block of
Marcos, they also want to perpetuate into the records an escape clause (the
separate opinion) for the judgment of history.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
I may be blaming the Supreme Court unjustly for the cloak of legitimacy that
the martial regime enjoys. But the Supreme Court's "priority" of things leads
one to suspect the tight-rope walking it is trying to attempt under the martial
regime. The case of Aquino et al vs. Enrile, et al, G.R. No. L-35546 was filed
as early as October, 1972. The suit was a petition for, habeas corpus and was
therefore of the highest individual privilege. It was decided adversely against
the petitioners only last September 17, 1974. And yet, when a suit (Javellana
vs. Executive Secretary) was brought to challenge the validity of the ratification
of the new martial law Constitution, the Supreme Court took less than two
months to decide it. The decision was promulgated on March 31, 1973, and it
became the major basis for the dismissal of a privileged suit filed five months
earlier.
With the cloak of legitimacy stripped off the martial regime of Marcos, it
now becomes appropriate to sound a note of warning that the illegal ruler of the
Philippines does not speak for the government and people of the Philippines;
foreign governments should therefore be wary about swallowing Marcos’ so-
called solemn commitments to foreign nations. They should be wary about
concluding treaties and agreements which might be disowned by a legitimate
Philippine government that could come into being any moment now.
Chapter XVI
Plans in Perpetuity
During the 1965 election campaign of Marcos to oust then incumbent
President Diosdado P. Macapagal from Malacanang, the heckling slogan
devised for the Palace occupant was "Lis dyan. . . nakakahiya." (Get out. . .
shame on you!) Now, the unexpressed motto of Marcos and the ruling clique
is: "Patayin mo muna ako.” (You will have to kill me first before I yield.)
Marcos will not yield the dictatorship, the seat of power, alive. Someone, or
a power mightier than the combined strength of Marcos and the guns of martial
law will have to evict the man out of Malacanang.
Senator Jovito R. Salonga, one of the victims of the Plaza Miranda
bombing, voiced his own suspicions about Marcos' presidential plans in
perpetuity more than a month before the Miranda grenade-bombing.
Maniwala kayo, hindi bababa 'yan sa Malakanyang. (You better believe it,
he [Marcos] will not leave Malacanang). I know he will not relinquish the
presidency, and I have a few guesses on what he might just do,” Salonga
prophetically told a group of Liberal senatorial candidates. His group then was
the POSS team, which stands for the first letters of the last names of senatorial
candidates Salipada K. Pendatun, John H. Osmena, Salonga, and Melanio T.
Singson. Salonga forewarned his Colleagues about his suspicions on Marcos
possibly resorting to political trickery or gimmickry to perpetuate himself in
power when he dbserves that they were being over-confident over the results
of the pre-election poll surveys showing that the Liberals would sweep the 1 971
mid-term elections, and therefore, the 1973 elections. At the time, the Liberals
were already speaking in terms of Marcos becoming a "lameduck"' President.
Primitivo Mijares Page 365 "
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
They were acting no less cockily than the leaders of Julio Nahindasan 36 years
earlier. Little did they realize that Marcos would pull a bigger Nalundasan
murder one, year later with the liquidation of democracy in the Philippines.
If Salonga had suspicions then about Marcos not willing to "give up the
presidency upon the expiration of his term by December 30, 1973, there are
more overwhelming proofs now that Marcos will not give up his dictatorship -
until his death do them part.
The stark reality is that Marcos is prepared to rule for the duration of his
natural life on earth in the manner that Spain's Franco did - unless certain
fortuitous events intervene. Marcos intends to achieve his life-time dictatorship
by plundering the country economically and politically. Marcos would continue
to crack down on political dissent, maintain a weakened opposition and muzzle
the press, by the use of an expanded military establishment.
Since September 21, 1972, the so-called New Society has gone nowhere
but down; there has been no unstinted investment in the establishment of a
quality society, Marcos having betrayed from the start the objectives of his own
democratic revolution. Along the course of the New Society now yawns the pit
of a planned moral, political and economic bankruptcy in the Philippines.
This is part of the grand design of Marcos to perpetuate himself, his wife,
Imelda, and/or son, Ferdinand, Jr., in power. This was planned by Marcos from
the very start. Marcos, the methodical politician, does not act on impulses.
Everything is well-planned in advance or things are done in accordance with
set play patterns. The advance planning could lake a minute or a week or
months.
The execution of the plan for the "legalization” of the indefinite martial law
regime of Marcos is, even as an evil handiwork, a novelty to be admired by
political historians. The plan culminated in the promulgation of Proclamation
No. 1102 hy which Marcos declared the "ratification" of the martial law
Constitution and in the "'binabae” *i decision of the Supreme Court upholding
the validity of the proclamation.
(*1. This a stronger Tagalog term for an hermaphrodite.)
The meat of the plan was devised by Marcos is collaboration with
Presidential Assistant De Vega, who holds a doctorate degree in political
science from the University of Hyderabad. The scheme was to have enticed the
members of the Constitutional Convention as well as the spineless among the
"suspended" Congress into cooperating with Marcos in legitimizing his stay in
power beyond the end of his constitutional second four-year term on December
30.1973.
The scheme as devised was enshrined in the now notorious Article XVII
known as the T ransitory Provisions, of the New Constitution which provided for
the creation of an interim Nationalm Assembly. The ostensible function of the
interim assembly was to prepare the country for an orderly shift from the
presidential to the parliamentary form of government. There was hardly any
opposition to the Transitory Provisions. Delegates had been previously cowed
into submission by the President with the mass arrest of some "radical"
Convention delegates, such as Jose Mari Velez, Enrique Voltaire Garcia III,
Napoleon Rama, Francisco “Soc" Rodrigo, l;rnesto Rondon, Jose Nolledo,
Jose Calderon, Teopisto Guingona and Sedfrey Ordonez. Others were
Primitivo Mijares
Page 3 <&<c>
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
sufficiently tamed with bribes of money and promises, like appointments to the
new offices to be created under the new Constitution.
Two other delegates hostile to Marcos, Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., of Misamis
Oriental, and Manuel Martinez, of Masbate, were arrested after January 17,
1973, and detained without charges. Their only known crime was that they
campaigned vehemently in December, 1972, for the rejection of the Martial
Law Constitution. Pimentel and Martinez were among those who voted against
the draft of the new Constitution.
The pertinent provisions of Article XVII follow:
Section 1. There shall be an interim National Assembly which shall exist
immediately upon the ratification of this Constitution and shall continue until the
members of the regular National Assembly shall have been elected and shall
have assumed office following an election called for the purpose by the interim
National Assembly. Except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, the
interim National Assembly shall have the same powers and its Members shall
have the same functions, responsibilities, rights, privileges, and
disqualifications as the regular National Assembly and the Members thereof.
Sec. 2. The Members of the interim National Assembly shall be the
incumbent President and Vice-President of the Philippines, those v/ho served
as President of the nineteen hundred and seventy-one Contitutional
Convention, those Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives
who shall express in writing to the Commission on Elections within thirty days
after the ratification of this Constitution their option to serve therein, and those
Delegates to the nineteen hundred and seventy-one Constitutional Convention
who have opted to serve therein by voting affirmatively for this Article. They
may take their oath of office before any officer authorized to administer oath
and qualify thereto, after the ratification of this Constitution.
Sec. 3 (1 ) The incumbent President of the Philippines shall initially convene
the interim National Assembly and shall preside over its sessions until the
interim Speaker shall have been elected. He shall continue to exercise his
powers and prerogatives under the nineteen hundred and thirty-five
Constitution and the powers vested in the President and the Prime Minister
under this Constitution until he calls upon the interim National Assembly to
elect the interim President and the interim Prime Minister, who shall then
exercise their respective powers vested by this Constitution.
(2) All proclamations, orders, decrees, instructions, and acts promulgated,
issued, or done by the incumbent President shall be part of the law of the land,
and shall remain valid, legal, binding, and effective even after lifting of martial
law or the ratification of this Constitution, unless modified, revoked, or
superseded by sub-sequent proclamations, orders, decrees, instructions, or
other acts of the incumbent President, or unless expressly and explicitly
modified or repealed by the regular National Assembly.
Sec. 4. The interim Prime Minister and his Cabinet shall exercise all the
powers and functions, and discharge the responsibilities of the regular Prime
Minister and his Cabinet, and shall be subject to the same disqualifications
Primitivo Mijares Page 367
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
provided in this Constitution.
Sec. 5. The interim National Assembly shall give priority to measures for
the orderly transition from the presidential to the parliamentary system, the
reorganization of the Government, the eradication of graft and corruption, the
effective maintenance of peace and order, the implementation of declared
agrarian reforms, the standardization of compensation of government
employees, and such other measures as shall bridge the gap between
the rich and the poor.
Sec. 6 The interim National Assembly shall reapportion the Assembly seats
in accordance with Section two, Article Eight of this Constitution.
So, when the New Constitution was finally enacted by the Convention on
November 30, 1972, the delegates (who were actually mostly the losers to
congressmen, senators, city mayors and governors in the 1969 and 1971
elections), prepared to campaign vigorously for the ratification of this
handiwork. Marcos had told them he was all set to call the plebiscite on the
new Charter.
More than anybody else, Marcos and the military were particularly
interested in the approval of the New Constitution. It was a new charter that,
despite oversights that usually mark such hasty and devilish execution of plots,
was satisfactory to them for the moment. Firstly, it legitimized the martial law
proclamations, decrees, general orders and letters of instructions.
However, the senators and congressmen, still sulking over the closure of
Congress, were not as keen as their would-be fellow Assemblymen from the
Convention on the ratification of the New Constitution. As a matter of fact, they
started the campaign that it was plain lack of “delicadeza” on the part of
the Convention delegates to have inserted themselves into the proposed
interim National Assembly without going thru an election contest. But the
delegates unashamedly, not entirely without logic, pointed out that they were
sovereign over the congressmen because they were elected by the people with
more sovereign powers to do whatever they want with the country, whether to
turn it into a dictatorship, a republic or what not, or even abolish the Philippines
as a nation. They said they could even have excluded the incumbent members
of Congress if they had wanted to.
In almost all the polls conducted during the last days of December, 1972,
the overwhelming sentiment was for the rejection of the New Constitution. The
clarity and import of the message could not be missed. Rejection of the new
Constitution would have meant rejection of martial law itself. On December 27,
I orchestrated the controlled media in "exposing" a so-called "plot" of a number
of senators to exercise legislative functions and thereby "grab the legislative
powers belonging to the President." They had been called to the Palace on
December 20, 1973 and some of them expressed the thought that, as the
President had decided to postpone the plebiscite, Congress should perhaps be
convened on January 22, 1 973, in keeping with the 1 935 Constitution. With the
use of his spies, Marcos discovered that the senators had convened in caucus
at the invitation of Senate President Gil J. Puyat on December 24, 1972, and
decided to convene Congress to session to lay down the law on the holding of
Primitivo Mijares Page 368
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
a plebiscite on the new Constitution. Marcos didn't like this. The President
called me on Christmas day by phone and directed me to orchestrate stories
for the newspapers in which he appealed to the "conspirators" to desist from
provoking a constitutional crisis "which may result in the exercise by me of
authority which I have not exercised."
On New Year's Eve, the Palace announced the creation of Citizens*
Assemblies, otherwise known as barangays, purportedly for purposes of "loose
consultation" with the people on important public issues. On January 7, 1973,
the President announced the "indefinite postponement" of the plebiscite.
Because the people were "backsliding", the full severity of martial law was
reimposed. Public debates and discussions on the New Constitution were
prohibited.
Then, on January 10, 1973, - 5 days before the original date of the
.plebiscite that had been "postponed indefinitely" - the Citizens' Assemblies
were hastily convened for a day-to-day consultation up to the 15th of that
month. They were supposed to vote with raised hands on a set of questions
drafted by the Palace: "Do you like the New Society?" "Do you like the reforms
under martial law?" "Do you like Congress again to hold sessions?" "Do you
like the way President Marcos is running the affairs of the government?" "Do
you approve of the New Constitution?"
The suggested answers - in favor of martial law, the New Constitution, and
the President, and against Congress, against the interim Assembly and against
the idea of popular elections for at least 7 years, (7 being the favorite number
of the First Family) — were given to the participants. These participants
admittedly included ex-convicts, illiterates, and - as may be seen in the pictures
published by the controlled press - children of tender age. From January 1 1 to
January 16. the suggested answers came out in the media as "the demands of
the people."
On January 16, just one day after the close of the barangay consultations,
the Kokoy vote factory group announced .in the Daily Express and other papers
that 88% of the barangays all over the country had already turned in "certified
results" - an instant miracle that added insult to the injury committed against
the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), the constitutional agency in charge
of all plebiscites, whose intervention was ruled out.
In all previous national elections and plebiscites, it took the Comelec about
a month to come out with the over-all results from all over the islands. But the
Department of Local Governments - a new creation of the President under his
martial law powers - was undoubtedly "more efficient."
The next day, that is, on January 17, 1973, the President, amidst great
fanfare, proclaimed before a hurriedly-assembled crowd at the Palace that
more than 95% of the people in the barangays had "overwhelmingly ratified"
the new Constitution. Even the number of votes, certified' by a certain Mr.
Francisco Cruz, the "President" of the National Federation of Citizens’
Assemblies, seemed convincing: 14,976,561 in favor, and only 743,869
against.
So fast and foul was the whole exercise that many people could hardly
believe what they read in the newspapers. Those who thought they could still
rely on what the President said, asked one question that could not be
Primitivo Mijares
Page 36<?
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
answered: "What happened to the plebiscite that the President himself
postponed?"
The foreign press reported what it saw and called it a farce and a mockery.
A good number of Filipinos, until then in favor of the imposition of martial law,
felt deceived and offended. Many did not know that there were barangay
meetings supposed to be going on in all kinds of places.
Not even the Supreme Court, most of whose members are appointees of
the President, could say that the New Constitution had been ratified by the
people, as the one-man ruler had announced. By a 6-4 vote, they held that the
proposed Constitution was "not validly ratified" in accordance with the
prevailing Constitution. Nevertheless, they approved a last-minute insertion
(which provoked many conflicting interpretations) that there was no more
"judicial obstacle" to its being considered in force and effect." As pointed out by
Chief Justice Concepcion, who penned the Court's Resolution:
The point is that, such of the Barrio Assemblies as were held, took place
without the intervention of the Commission on Elections, and without complying
with the provisions of the Election Code . . . What is more, tney were held under
the supervision of the very officers and agencies of the Executive Department
who sought to be excluded therefrom by Article X of the 1935 Constitution.
Worse still, said officers and agencies . . . would be favored thereby, owing to
the practically indefinite extension of their respective terms of office, in
consequence of the Transitory Provisions found in the Proposed Constitution,
without any elections therefor. And the procedure therein mostly followed is
such that there is no reasonable means of checking the accuracy of the results.
. . . This is another violation of the Constitution which can hardly be sanctioned.
. . such violation renders null and void the contested proceedings or alleged
plebiscite in the Citizens’ Assemblies. ..
"The record shows that Mr. Cruz (the one who certified the results) was not
even a member of a barrio council since 1972. so that he could not possibly
have been a member on January 17, 1973, of a municipal association of
presidents of barrio or ward citizens' assemblies, much less of a provincial, city
or National Association or Federation of Presidents of any such provincial or
city associations. . , .
"Indeed, I cannot, in good conscience, declare that the proposed
Constitution has been approved or adopted by the people in the citizens'
assemblies all over the Philippines, when it is, to my mind, a matter of judicial
knowledge that there have been no such citizens' assemblies in many parts of
the Philippines ....
Probably more than any incident, it was the scandalous "plebiscite" and the
shameless" "ratification" of the New Constitution that convinced many informed
Filipinos that martial law was nothing more than a device to stay in power. All
things else — morality, legality, public welfare, and common decency - were to
be subordinated to the politics of power retention.
Not long after the Supreme Court's decision, the independent-minded
members of the Comelec were booted out, and the President's partisans came
in to take charge of the referendum which the President said would be held
every year. The referendum results - one was held in July, 1974, another in
Primitivo Mijares Page 37 O
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
February, 1975 — based on loaded, suggestive questions regarding the
continuation of martial law, and the indefinite stay of the one-man ruler, were
quickly hailed by the controlled media as an overwhelming mandate (90% being
the usual percentage) in favor of a regime so unsure of its legitimacy that the
people have to be required, on pain of being jailed, to go to the polls periodically
and declare their love for it.
Why was there no provision on succession in the Malacanang-dictated
Constitution? There was one in the original draft prepared by Presidential
Assistant De Vega and Delegate Gilberto Duavit. As a matter of fact, it was a
carbon copy of the 1935 Constitution's provision on succession. However,
Marcos himself instructed Dr. De Vega to cut out the provision on succession.
He pointed out that then Vice President Fernando Lopez would necessarily be
the successor-in-waiting, or that a designated successor waiting on the wings
could always "plot my death."
On this point, Marcos double-crossed the military officers whom he had
been titillating one by one as his possible successor. Even the statement he
had agreed with the military that his successor would be a civilian official is a
farce.
With the enforcement of the New Constitution, all the legal successors of
the President - in case of the latter’s death, removal, disability, or resignation
had been systematically eliminated. Having thrown them out and, in addition,
imprisoned or discredited all potential rivals for the Presidency, the martial law
authorities, sensing mounting dissatisfaction, brazenly floated the question -
"But who is the alternative to Mr. Marcos?" In any case, their impudence
backfired, for if the New Society has no known procedure for the orderly transfer
of power, there can be no basis for the repeated claim that it has achieved
political and social stability. The President himself, realizing that foreign
observers and investors, local businessmen and the genera) public, were
disturbed by the lack of the element of predictability in the governance of public
affairs, answered the question in a memorable speech that raised more
intriguing questions and cast serious doubts on the planning and rationale of
martial law and on the quality of discipline in the New Society. Speaking from
the Palace on the first anniversary of the New Constitution on January 1 7, 1 974,
he declared:
"I must now reveal to you that before I proclaimed martial law; all those who
advised me agreed that I should provide fur the procedure by which a
successor would be chosen the moment anything happens to disqualify me.
This has been done by virtue of a decree which I have kept in order that it may
not sow intrigue, discord and disunity among our people. If anything had
happened to me, or if anything happens to me, that decree would be
immediately in force. . .
Even his own associates and subordinates noticed the slip. From the time
the President declared martial law in September, 1 972 up to January 1 7, 1 973,
when he declared, on the basis of the false certification of Mr. Cruz, that the
New Constitution had been "overwhelmingly ratified" by the people, the 1935
Constitution and the law on succession (Rep. Act. No. 818) provided who his
successor should be. But his revelation clearly admits that before martial law
Primitivo Mijares Page 371
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
was proclaimed, the planners of martial law had already agreed to purge all the
legal successors of the Presidency. Only the one-man ruler can select his
successor and his succession must be kept secret; otherwise, "intrigue,
discord, and disunity" may prevail among the people.
What about the power of the National Assembly, now that the New
Constitution is in effect, to elect the successor to the Prime Minister by a
majority vote of all its members? Such a power does not exist. The one-man
rule? has decreed, allegedly with the support of the barangays, that there shall
be no Assembly. The nation is still in a long, indefinite period of transition, and
the Palace-drafted transitory provisions have consigned most of the other provi-
sions of the New Constitution to the limbo! One Supreme Court justice held that
the New Constitution is "in a state of anaesthesia".
In any evert, the secret decree only stirred up all sorts of speculation as to
who the successor or successors could be. The First Lady? A ranking general
or cabinet member, perhaps? A committee or a junta? No one really knows. A
decree that is secret can always be changed, depending on circumstances.
And if the dictator is no longer around, who will enforce the decree? Or will the
Philippines become just another banana republic, moving from one strong man
to another?
When Marcos called the referendum of July 1 0, to 1 5,1 975, he assured the
skeptical Convention delegates expecting to seat as full-pledged members of
the interim National Assembly that he would submit the Constitution for
ratification. He assured them that the interim assembly would be convened by
him.
However, less than 24 hours before the first day of the referendum, the
referendum group headed by Kokoy Romualdez and which included myself as
member, got the final six questions which were to be addressed to the
referendum. One of them was a question on whether the assembly should be
convened.
The final tabulation that we made — out of nothing — is as follows:
1. Do you approve of the Citizens’ Assembly as a way of popular
government to decide issues affecting our people?
(Yes — 15, 290, 639 No — 462,852)
2. Do you approve of the New Constitution?
(Yes — 14, 976,561 No — 743,869)
3. Do you want a plebiscite to be called to ratify the new Constitution?
(Yes — 1,322, 434 No— 14,298,814)
4. Do you want to hold elections in November, 1973, as provided for in
the 1935 Constitution?
— 14,431,957)
not be held, when do you want the
5.
(Yes — 1, 206, 721 No
If the elections in 1973 will
next elections to be called?
(Over 7 years
7 years
6 years
5 years
4 years
3 years
2 years
2,016,711
8,513,167
2,264,668
1,388.555
809,991
528,973
446,321
Primitivo Mijares
Page 37 Z
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
1 year - 380,200
Oyear - 181,835)
With 95 percent “voting” against the convening of the interim National
Assembly, and remarks having been dutifully reported by the controlled media
that the convening of the assembly would be a throwback to the days of political
elitism and that the people want the barangays to be the lawmaking body
in place of the National Assembly, Marcos conveniently bowed to the
predetermined “will of the people” and called a “Katipunan ng mga
Barangay”conference (People’s Congress) at the Maharlika Hall on January
17,1973. Invited to the conference were representatives from labor, youth, etc.
and Senate Presi- dent Gil J. Puyat, Speaker ComelioT. Villareal and Chief Jus-
tice Roberto S. Concepcion.
As the Convention delegates slowly tried to visualize their forlorn dreams,
most of them wryly remarked: “Talagang magaling manakit ng tao itong si
Macoy. Nang-once na, nang-uto pa.” (This man Marcos really knows how to
hurt people. He first treated us like small children then double crossed us.”)
Of course, the major reasons for the non-calling of the interim National
Assembly was Marcos’ decision to rule alone and thereby perpetuate himself
in power.
But other than officially declaring that it is the desire of the people as
indicated by them in their overwhelming vote during the referendum that the
INA not be convened, Marcos has not stated the other major valid reason for
not convening the interim N ational Assembly.
If he ever convenes the interim National Assembly, he would create a
Frankenstein monster that could have more disastrous effects for the country
than martial law itself. He may never again be able to have his way; for he will
have to contend with a truly unwieldy assembly that could be blackmailing him
every moment of his tortured dictatorship.
Imagine an assembly with 24 senators, 102 congressmen and 320 Con-
Con delegates as members! Its duty would be to provide the mechanics for an
orderly transition from the presidential to the parliamentary form of government.
And one such infrastructure would be the organization of the regular National
Assembly which, as understood by all those in the Con-Con, would be
composed of one assemblyman from each of the assembly districts. Now, the
number of assembly districts could be not less than 1 20 nor more than 1 60 as
this has been understood in the defunct, lamented Seventh Congress which
called the Constitutional Convention into being. In the re-districting
of the country alone, there would be endless disagreements among the more
than 400 interim National Assembly members. We should bear in mind that all
the 400 are ambitious men who, just like Marcos, certainly would not want to
give up any position of privilege and power. They would all be jockeying for
position — and for advantage, if they have to go through an election. They
would most likely bear in mind that elections are too expensive; elections have
reduced politicians to penury. They might just come to the conclusion that they
might just as well co-exist with their political enemies in the interim Nation-
al Assembly instead of doing combat with each other once more in a regular
election.
So, the interim assembly can turn out to be a Frankenstein monster. The
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
members will never vote against themselves; they will never vote to dissolve
the interim National Assembly. And since the new Constitution does not
prescribe a specific period for the existence of the interim National Assembly,
it could go on and on. Marcos would have to abolish it the way he sidelined
the bicameral Congress of pre-martial law days.
The expenses that the interim assembly would incur by its operation could
be staggering; that is money which could be utilized for the expensive foreign
trips and jet-set parties of Imelda Romualdez-Marcos.
Quite naturally, Marcos is not the kind of a man who would admit that the
above-cited reason is one of the compelling arguments against the convening
of the interim National Assembly. The demi-god cannot afford to commit
mistakes; much less can a demi-god afford to make an admission that he had
committed a mistake.
In the military ruling clique that shares powers with Dictator Marcos in some
ways, there is an Inner Seven and an Outer Eleven.
Whenever the situation in the Philippines develops to such a point as to call
for flexing of muscles, the President calls the Inner Seven, plus four more, to
complete the so-called Outer Eleven so that messages could be beamed to
various sectors that the military ruling clique is united.
The fact that the military commanders have been accorded the awesome
power and privilege of sharing the loot of an authoritarian government renders
the present situation in the Philippines a hopeless one. The military won't ever
let go of the power and privilege that once were an exclusive preserve of
politicians and policemen.
Thus, when Executive Secretary' Alejandro D. Melchor proposed a "purge"
of undesirables in the government, including the military, to dramatize the third
anniversary of martial law, he himself got purged in the process.
Marcos was unable to do anything when ranking military commanders led
by Secretary of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile, submitted their resignation en
masse following the Melchor-proddcd September 21, 1975 announcement of
Marcos that the next target of the purge would be the defense establishment.
It was a case of making Marcos choose between Melchor and the military.
Marcos chose Melchor for decapitation.
Melchor, an Annapolis graduate, proposed the purge of the military in an
honest and sincere desire to cleanse government. He had received reports of
wide-rangiing corruption among the military officers in almost every aspect of
national life where they could collect "tong".
The "tong" for everything has quadrupled, not on account of inflation but
because the military demands a higher price. They who have the more powerful
guns wield greater powers of coercion.
Before the advent of martial law, the nightclubs and restaurants could
reverberate to sickening calls, like "What will you have, Mr. Senator or Mr.
Congressman?" while the beauty and mahjong parlors had "Mrs. Senator or
Mrs. Congressman"* for their big patroness. This time, waitresses, waiters
and/or host- esses in restaurants and nightclubs are usually heard addressing
their customers as "general", "coloneP. "major", "captain", while the beauty and
mahjong suites have for most of their patrons "Mrs. General", "Mrs. Colonel",
"Mrs. Major", or "Mrs. Captain."
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
As in every aspect ot human endeavor where the spoils or the loot must be
shared or divided, the military occupiers of the country have had their ups and
downs. At the South Harbor, a shoot-out between elements of the Metrocom
and the Coast Guard armed with heavy weapons almost erupted over division
of the spoils.
Marcos always humors the military by persistently claiming that there is a
September 21 movement.
By doing so. he retains the loyalty of the soldiers who arc loyal to the
generals (whom Marcos likes to flatter as belonging to the September 21
movement). There is really no such thing as a September 21 movement,
although the psy-war people of the armed forces continuously identify
themselves as belonging to the September 2 I movement.
Sometimes some of the generals whom Marcos constantly flatter with
mention of their membership in the September 21 movement are as disgusted
as anybody because Marcos seems to move too slowly in acting on their
proposals. This is one reason the generals just act on their own in taking care
of their future economic security.
The September 21 movement exists only in the imagination of Dictator
Marcos. It is a gimmick to make the sidelined politicians feel that they have no
chance of staging a comeback onto the political arena because the Dictator has
the full backing of the military.
By claiming that there is a September 21 movement, Marcos humors the
military officers into believing that they are his advisers. It" only they would know
that they have so little value in the scheme of things designed by Marcos, then
they would probably mutiny against the usurper commander-in-chief of the
armed forces. Marcos himself suspects that every project presented to him by
every general or colonel is calculated to serve the selfish personal motives of
the proponent.
Marcos does not really love his generals. He monitors their movement
every inch of the way. On many an occasion. I have heard the President give
direct orders to Gen. Ver to take steps to downgrade Major Gen. Fidel Ramos,
the PC chief, because he was becoming too popular in the newspapers. In this
project of downgrading generals. Marcos receives the willing assistance of the
First Lady who distrusts all the llocano generals in the armed forces because
she believes they serve as the procurers of women for President Marcos.
While Marcos makes sure that the military won't get to be swell-headed and
think about taking over his job, the dictator distributes once in a while a few
crumbs that he and Imelda, in-laws and cronies are otherwise unable to chew
for themselves.
This particular pie is named “Mission CONUS, or mission to Continental
United States,” consisting of trips to the United States and subsequently around
the world for favored AFP officers or those officers whose “dangerous”
inclinations against the dictatorship merit for themselves an exile abroad.
Foreign junkets were usually a private preserve ot the members of the
defunct Congress. Now that the military officers are helping Marcos make the
laws and enforce them under a dictatorial rule, they somehow have been
allowed to share in those restful and profitable trips abroad.
It is about time the generals wake up and realize that they are only being
used and fooled by President Marcos as he had done with other sectors of
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Philippine society in his mad rush to the presidency and to dictatorship.
One argument heavily exploited is that it is more economical to run the
country under martial law than under a parliament of duly elected
representatives of the people.
But look at how the salaries of military personnel have been doubled, while
civil servants got only as little as 1 0 percent increase. Then, when the President
felt he had to cajole the Court of First Instance judges or make the world believe
that the New Society has a strong and independent judiciary, he increased their
salaries.
When the domino effect on succeeding aspects of expenditures for martial
law are considered, like the referendum, the cost could even be more
staggering.
Crime solution is not only both expensive and inefficient, it is in a mess. It
is expensive for so many people because suspects are rounded up in mass
and thrown to the stockade. This was particularly true in the early days of
martial law and on to the second year.
Then, due to the lack of publicity in the commission of crimes and possible
description of suspects, people are unable to assist in detection work, or cannot
give tips to the law enforcers.
As far as crime solution is concerned, the people are “terra incognita”.
The military cannot expect voluntary cooperation from the police forces in
maintaining peace and order because there is widespread resentment by the
policemen against martial law for many reasons.
One of the selfish reasons is that the Constabulary has replaced the
policeman as tong collectors.
Even in going after actresses and hostesses, the military has priority.
The only known action that Dictator Marcos has taken on erring military
officers involved those of Brigadier Generals Alfred M. Montoya and Tagumpay
Nanadiego.
Montoya was relieved of his Metrocom command right after the near-
encounter between Metrocom armored car-borne troopers and the gunboat-
borne marines from the Philippine Coast Guard at the South Harbor.
There were, of course, other compelling reasons for his relief.
In the process of relieving Montoya, the President was com-
pelled to retire Brig. Gen. Efigenio Navarro, second military area commander
whose son had, even before martial law, joined the New People’s Army
elements operating in the Bicol area.
On the other hand, Nanadiego was retired because some of his legal
assistants in the AFP Judge Advocate General’s Office were denounced by
cronies of the President with having allegedly pried into the “hidden wealth” of
certain rich friends of Mrs. Marcos who have already filed their application for
tax amnesty under Presidential Decree No. 23.
Nanadiego was replaced by Court of Appeals Justice Guillermo Santos as
JAGO head. In appointing an outsider to replace Nanadiego, Marcos again
evaded the problem of having to displease any of the factions at the military
establishment. A good number of DND leaders had their own recommendees
for the JAGO post.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Nanadiego is the only officer of general rank to have been taken out for
alleged misconduct in the exercise of martial powers. All other generals have
been allowed by the Dictator to overstay in their posts.
And this is one reason the colonels and the majors and captains are
chafing. They feel that their own retirement days would come without their
having been able to earn their stars because there are so many overstaying
generals.
The miltary is actually both a source of strength — about the only one right
now — and a pain in the neck for Marcos.
Marcos has thus far been able to adroitly manipulate the military. For his
own purposes, he has not opted for an elite professional military that would
stick to the honor code and present him with a threat of a coup d’etat. In fact,
he has kept the military tied down to a non-win war a la Vietnam in Muslim
Mindanao.
One of the devices concocted by Marcos in thwarting too much
encroachments by the mlitary into the realm of civil government is the
organization of the so-called Sangguniang Bayan or Legislative Advisory
Council. This scheme called for the abolition of the positions of vice governor
and vice mayors, and of board members and municipal councils in the local
governments. The displaced officials were then constituted into the so-called
local Legislative Advisory Councils without pay. This cushioned the bitterness
of the displaced officials and at the same time effectively prevented the majors
and captains inihe armed forces who were girding to become either governors,
vice-governors, mayors, vice mayors, board members or councilors from
pursuing their political aspirations.
Marcos evolved the SB or LAC scheme when he first got hold of reports
that the AFP majors and captains have been instructed by their military
commands to start taking up public administration courses preparatory to taking
over the local government positions when the term of elective officials expire
by December 31,1975. Marcos certainly did not want the military meddling in
purely civilian functions, although he initially held out to the military high hopes
that the AFP officers would participate in civil government.
I used to discuss with Marcos during his spare time the matter of the
generals becoming powerful, abusive and corrupt; that military commanders in
the provinces were behaving like feudal despots and this mentality is filtering
to their children. The situation, as I viewed it was similar to the pre-martial law
days when the children of politicians behaved as spoiled young punks.
However, in those days, there was a safety valve: regular elections during
which there was a chance to throw the bums out.
Marcos, in turn, would tell me that he has the military in tow. He has been
able to divide and rule the military. Marcos has kept a dossier on every ranking
military commander, and he lets them know — as the occasion demands —
that he is in possession of those dossiers. Sometimes, Marcos uses Enrile,
Tatad, or De Vega to beam messages to the military.
However, Marcos ha# no intention of acting decisively to stamp out abuses
and corruption by the military. He has even banned publication of news items
on disciplinary actions taken against military personnel by their own military
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
courts. He wants the military shielded from the glare of publicity.
Falsifications, forgeries and bribery and/or blackmail are standard weapons
in the arsenal of Marcos. They are used for both defensive and offensive
purposes. Marcos realizes that, inspite of his having won some big battles, the
entire war of his career would be decided by the verdict of history. Thus, he
would stop at nothing to insure the favorable verdict of history. He would even
falsify historical records to obtain the much-sought nod of history.
For instance, the unpublished presidential decree on perpetuation of
testimony was promulgated days after the first attempt to bring former Senator
Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. to trial in August, 1973, but it was ante-dated to make it
appear that it was promulgated before that date. One would notice that decrees
issued by President Marcos do not haVe consecutive numbering, the reason
being that, every so often, Marcos issues decrees which must be antedated.
Even the unused Letter of Sequestration covering the confiscation of the
facilities of the Lopez-owned radio-television complex and the Chronicle
printing establishment was antedated to make it appear that it was issued
during the first few days of the imposition of martial law.
The truth, however, is that the Letter of Sequestration was drafted only
after the burning of the Kanlaon Broadcasting System building on Roxas
Boulevard, and at a time when Alfredo Montelibano, the authorized
representative of Don Eugenio Lopez on negotiations for the sale of the ABS-
CBN complex, was imposing certain difficult conditions for the lease of the
compound to the representatives of Ambassador Roberto S. Benedicto, the
front man of the President in the media field as well as in the sugar business,
financing and contracts with Japanese companies.
Ante-dating documents is a common practice in the Palace. Even the
martial law proclamation (No. 1 081 ) was ante-dated to Sept. 21 ,1 972, although
its typing was actually finished on Sept. 23, at about 4 p.m.
Marcos is a past grandmaster at historical falsifications. And it is a small
wonder he has chosen to do a similar job on the 1 971 Constitution — to suit his
criminal and selfish purposes. There are many more falsified provisions of the
New Constitution — done under the direction of Dictator Marcos himself, as
there are numerous areas of the so-called minutes of the Constitutional
Convention which were blatantly doctored, all to suit future contemplated
actions of the President, like the creation of the National Intelligence and
Security Agency as part of the decree enacting an Internal Security Act. By that
decree, Marcos formalized his being the dictator of the country as he enu-
merated therein the acts or utterances that are punishable, setting up the secret
police under Gen. Ver, and enumerating acts which, even if martial law were
lifted, would still be punishable by military tribunals.
The ante-dating of Proclamation No. 1081 had a pivotal objective — for
historical purposes.
It was dated Sept. 21 ,1972, to show to future historians that the President
really did not abolish Congress by his imposition of martial law, but that it was
the New Constitution that disbanded the bicameral legislature under the 1935
Constitution.
Writings have already been made to show that Congress was even allowed
to function, meet on Saturday, Sept. 23, two days after Marcos signed
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Proclamation No. 1081, or one day after he had ordered its implementation.
The Constitutional Convention journal was falsified so thoroughly by
Marcos. The grave falsifications were committed on the alleged discussions on
the power of a President to call a referendum and on the very powers of the
President (or Prime Minister.)
Those who were represented as having talked on these powers, but
actually did not, were Delegates Arturo Pacificador, Godofredo Ramos,
Roseller T. Lim, Antonio Tupaz, Estanislao A. Fernandez, Arturo Barbero,
Gilberto Duavit and Luninding Pangandaman.
The falsified portions of the Constitutional Convention journal were then
cited as “authority” by Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza when he argued for
the government before the Supreme Court on the case of Javellana us.
Executive Secretary. So thorough was the falsification that the journal even
showed “speeches” justifying the creating of a national secret police, the NISA.
A delegate was even represented as having delivered a speech — during an
alleged debate on the Transitory Provisions — that the new Constitution may
be submitted to either a referendum or a plebiscite and that the President would
be under no constitutional obligation to convene the interim National Assembly.
There is widespread criticism of the unseemly haste with which the
President implemented the New Constitution as it benefited him, but put off
implementing the provisions benefitting others, i.e. the calling of the interim
National Assembly, filling up of other offices like the Commission on Audit, the
Budget Commission, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, or the Civil
Service Commission.
Of course, Dictator Marcos justified the immediate effectivity he made of
the New Constitution as it affected his becoming a dictator by citing the“existing
emergency” for which he imposed martial law.
Whatever rationalizing he does, the shabby treatment he gave democracy
in the Philippines will remain an indelible blot on his already blemished record.
If Marcos wanted to be fair, he could have set the effectivity of the New
Constitution to Dec. 31, 1974, and thus pave the way for an election. But he
was really scared of elections. He had never won an election fairly in his life. In
an election which was fairly conducted, his father lost, but he deprived the victor
of the enjoyment of the fruits of victory by gunning him down, according to the
findings of former Court of First Instance Judge Roman Cruz. He dreaded
elections.
The 1935 Constitution was more subtly implemented by Quezon. It was
made effective Dec. 30, 1935, but provided for elections on Sept. 18, 1935. It
cut short the term of office of those elected in 1934 to the National Assembly,
including Julio Nalundasan (who defeated Mariano Marcos, father of now Dicta-
tor Ferdinand Marcos, in 1934).
Marcos had made a mockery of many things, one of them being the
referendum. He infers his right to call a referendum from Republic Act No 3590
which suggested the calling of Citizens’ Assemblies, and which he further
“strengthened” by his issuance of Presidential Decree No. 86, the original
decree on referendum.
Senator Lorenzo M. Tanada is right. There is no constitutional authority for
the holding of a referendum without congressional sanction (as in a plebiscite
Primitivo Mijares Page 374
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
on a specified subject), much less was there any legal authority for the holding
of a referendum of Jan. 10-15 (1973) which Marcos deemed to have ratified
the Malacanang-dictated Constitution.
The existence of the taxation provision on properties of religious
educational institutions was one of the reasons the New Constitution was pulled
out of a scheduled plebiscite on Jan. 1 5, 1 973
Marcos found out that the religious groups, led by the Catholic church
leaders, were out to defeat the New Constitution. The New Constitution could
have been voted down by the people for that reason.
Another ground for its defeat would have been the Transitory provision
which would allow the Con-Con delegates to sit as members of the interim
National Assembly, a situation so unpalatable to their political superiors,
namely senators and congressmen. The Convention delegates, it should be
stated, were the political rejects in the Old Society. And to insert themselves
as lawmakers in the interim National Assembly was something the tried and
tested politicos would not accept.
There were other valid reasons for rejecting the New Constitution. No. 1
was the Transitory Provision which made a mockery of the entire democratic
processes. Another was the lack of a provision on succession.
Catholic leaders are now fighting, if divided, because they had had to move
to wring out concessions from Marcos on the non-implementation of a provision
of the New Constitution on taxation of properties used for profit, like those for
schools and hospitals.
Archbishop Santos had struck a “modus vivendi with Marcos on the non-
implementation of the provision. As a matter of fact, a Letter of Instructions
(unpublished) was issued by the President instructing the Secretary of
Education not to enforce the provision
However, upon the death of Archbishop Santos and the ascendancy of
Archbishop Jaime Sin, the situation was altered. Sin would not compromise
with Marcos; he felt that the duty of the church to fight for the civil liberties of
the people, and for social change was something which cannot be bartered
away. Sin eventually sided with the minority bishops, a group of five, who
initiated the struggle for civil liberties. Eventually, the entire Church leadership
joined as one. Of course, some moderates, like Archbishop Julio Rosales and
Bishop Mariano Gaviola, urged caution, stating that there was no sense in go-
ing into a konfrontasi with the military government of Marcos.
Presidential Decree No. 2 declared the entire country as a land reform area
— it was meant to get the mass of farmiers immediately behind the martial law
government. No details were spelled out, but since this was a vital measure to
draw the endorsement of the farmers of the martial law proclamation,
PD No. 2 was announced hand in hand with the issuance of Proclamation No.
1081 . The land reform decree promised a lot of things to the farmers, the hope
that they would soon be able to seize the big sugar, coconut, rice and corn
lands where they and their forbears have toiled endlessly for years. However,
the massing farmers were stopped by the military on orders of Pres-
ident Marcos. x
It was understandable that the President would issue the stop order. He
didn’t want trouble this early coming from the landowners for he feared them.
Up to now, Marcos still lives still in mortal fear that all the groups might band
Primitivo Mijares Page 38 O
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
together and gang up on him. Marcos had always warned his advisers that
the martial regime was not secure in its position.
“I wish you people who are behaving arrogantly would realize that we have
not yet stabilized the situation,” Marcos snorted once to a group of assistants.
“At anytime, we can have trouble . .. and all that e have worked for can blow up
into nothingness . . . then our heads will be on the block.” Presidential Decree
No. 27, signed on Oct 27,1 972, during a ceremony attended by herded farmers
from Bulacan and nearby areas, declared the emancipation of the tenant-
farmers from his “bondage” to the soil. This was authored by Secretary Artu-
ro R. Tanco, Jr.
The decree declared that tenant farmers in rice and com lands are
automatically owners of the lands they are tilling at the time of the issuance of
the decree. Sugar lands were excluded because the Dictator clearly did not
want a clash with the sugar barons.
Later, Marcos issued Letter of Instructions to the Department of Agrarian
Reform and other offices concerned to the effect that only lands over 100
hectares are covered by PD No. 27 — the first letdown for the farmers. Later
another LOI was issued, placing rice and com lands with areas of 50 hectares
ot over under the coverage of the land reform decree. This was when Marcos
realized that there are actually very few tenants who would be benefited by the
first LOI.
But the big problem that has come up is how the new landowner-tillers are
going to get financing.
Most landholdings are those of 20-3-hectare areas. These are owned by
absentee landlords, i.e. teachers, soldiers, employees who have three to four
children and are reserving these either for their children and for themselves to
attend to personally when they finally leave their current employment and into
retirement.
A lot of trouble has cropped up on this area of land reform; more troubles
are building up.
Besides, when Marcos proclaimed the alleged emancipation of the tenant-
farmer from the landlord, his objective was not really to help the farmers. His
main goal was to prevent a threat from ever being put up by the big landowners
to his regime. Land reform was programmed in order that the big landowners
could be uprooted from their “sanctuaries” outside Manila where they could
scheme against Marcos. They could finance small pockets of rebellion. Now,
with the landowners dispossessed, and receiving only small payments for their
lands, they are effectively prevented from underwriting any protest or
dissent against the Marcos regime. They are kept in the cities where Marcos
maintains a pervasive climate of fear greater than those in the rural areas.
The project to uproot the landlords from their rural sanctuaries is tied up to
another project: the modernization of tax collection through computerization of
the assets and liabilities of everybody. The sinister motive is for Marcos to know
who are his rich potential enemies. Then through the power to destroy
— taxation — he could disable those who are outside his clique.
The ruthlessness of Marcos is part of his staying power. This evil quality in
the man has goaded the dictator to make use of any strategem to achieve his
objectives. Marcos did not hesitate to push the country to the brink of
bankruptcy to win a reelection against Senator Sergio Osmena, Jr., in 1 969. He
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
did not hesitate to declare martial law when it became apparent
that he would be unable to extend his stay in Malacanang beyond December
30,1973, through a constitutional amendment.
And, having wielded die guns of martial law, Marcos’ one major concern
turned to cloaking his dictatorship with legitimacy. He could not content himself
with the string of Supreme Court decisions “upholding” his dictatorship for he
himself realized that he had extorted those decisions. Marcos extorted
statements from certain national leaders either by cajolery, threats and
intimidation, promises of political favors or assurances that they would be
spared from harassment by the minions of the dictatorship. Marcos calls it
“favor for a favor.”
However, Marcos miserably failed to extort endorsements for his regime
from national leaders who really count Among those who have brusquely turned
down Marcos’ plea for public endorsement of the dictatorship were Senate
President Gil J. Puyat, Speaker Jose B. Laurel, Jr. and the entire Laurel clan,
including Senator Salvador H. Laurel, Senators Jose W. Diokno, Jovito R.
Salonga, Ramon V. Mitra, Jr., Gerardo A. Roxas, Arturo M. Tolentino, Ambrosio
S. Padilla and Eva Estrada Kalaw, and former Senator Lorenzo M. Tanada.
Marcos seems to have succeeded, however, in extorting a statement of
support from his own bitter rival for the presidency in 1969, Osmena, Jr. It
seems that Osmena wrote from Los Angeles Congressman Donald Fraser,
chairman of the House subcommittee on international organizations, a letter
endorsing continued U.S. military and economic assistance to the
Philippines. The letter, dated July 9,1975, was sent by Osmena following
representations made in behalf of Marcos by Former Ambassador Amelito R.
Mutuc and former Supreme Court Justice Estanislao A. Fernandez. Although
Osmena denies that his letter of July 9 to Fraser was a “favor for a favor,” his
daughter-in-law, Marilita (wife of imprisoned Sergio Osmena III) and son,
Sergei, and a daughter, were allowed by the Marcos dictatorship to leave for
the United States on July 17,1975, so that Sergei IV could undergo intensive
medical care in the United States.
Marcos’ controlled media in the Philippines and in the United States blared
out in their front pages in glaring headlines the contents of the Osmena letter
to Fraser.
Now, the point is that Osmena, Jr., son of a former Philippine President and
the man who run for the Presidency against Marcos in the 1969 elections, has
the least reason to support the Marcos regime through the letter he had sent to
Congressman Fraser. The elder Osmena has been accused by Marcos of the
worst possible crimes, including alleged assassination plots. His son, Osmena
III, has been a “hostage” of Marcos for the last three years, accused also of
alleged conspiracy in the assassination plot. The son and daughter of Serging’s
elder daughter, Minnie, have still not been given any permit by Mar-
cos to join their mother in the United Staes. Perhaps, another “favor” will be
extorted by Marcos of Serging before his two grandchildren, Paulo Osmena-
Jacinto, age 10, and Stephanie Osmena-Jacinto, age 8, can be permitted to
join their mother.
Marcos’ holding of Minnie’s children as hostage even touched the
hardened sensibilities of the dean of students, Archie C. Epps III, of Harvard
College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that the man was compelled to write the
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
dictator a letter on November 20,1975, interceding for the release of Minnie’s
children. He wrote:
“I wish to call to your attention the fate of two young children being held in
the Philippines against their will and separated from their mother. I urge their
release as the only humanitarian action possible in the situation. I know that as
a parent you understand the state of fear and unhappiness they suffer... I know
that the Philippines is under a state of emergency declared by the government
but such concerns should not be placed above the welfare of defenseless,
innocent children. I cannot imagine, frankly, why they have been held for such
a long while... I continue to hope that the Philippines, which has a special place
in my heart, will represent the highest standards of decency and humanity in
the community of nations ... I think, Mr. President, that the retention of these
children can only reflect poorly on the Philippines, xxx”
If Professor Epps III was very diplomatic, the wife of Serging, Lourdes, did
not chose to mince words as she asked the conjugal dictators in Malacanang
in a letter of July 1 6,1 975, to allow the two Minnie children to join their mother
in the United States. She wrote in her own handwriting:
“Dear Imelda & Ferdinand,
“I know I should not be pestering you with my pleadings but it concerns an
8 year and 1 0 year old children, Paolo & Stephanie Jacinto.
“In your holding them as hostage and not allowing them to leave the country
to join their parents is a punishment that no one at that age could withstand &
endure. It is mental anguish. Do you think your own flesh and blood could
endure such separation & anguish & its fragile minds not snap at that ager
“At 6 yesterday morning my grandchild Stephanie called me long distance
collect begging me to help them come & I had to tell her that it is President
Marcos who is against it.
“Why do you hate us so much that even our children, an 8 & 10 year old,
are being punished for something that nobody knows whose fault except for
some malicious tongues and insinuation?
“In what way did these children harm you & yours?
“I have never pleaded for my son even though I know deep down in my
heart that he is innocent of the charges against him. It is ironic that of all my
children he had the most admiration & respect for you & now you are the cause
of his suffering.
“And I do not believe that dirty linen should be washed in public that we
Filipino instead should try to love and understand one another & not breed an
atmosphere of contempt and hate.
“I have been silent all these past three years but for you to hold an 8 & 10
year old as hostage is too much for a 61 year old woman to bear and endure in
silence — they are innocent. I beg you, please do not punish them. Allow them
to be with their parents whom at such a tender age they need so badly —
“Sincerely,
“LOURDES OSMENA”
One can understand the suffering that the elder Osmenas (Serging and
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Lourdes) must continuously endure on account of the incarceration of Serge III
and the holding of the two Minnie children as Marcos’ hostages.
Of course, it underscores the ruthless, nay the heartless make-up of the
conjugal dictatorship.
However, it is precisely the heartless nature of Marcos that the public
perceives which gives Ferdinand and Imelda the utmost satisfaction of their
inhuman exercise on the lives of the Osmenas. Both Ferdinand and Imelda
realize that their dictatorship can only be perpetuated through force and with
the support of the military. Now, when known opponents, like Serging, whose
legions of Cebuano supporters in the United States and in the Philippines are
waiting for his signal to revolt against Marcos, are compelled to support (instead
of attack) Marcos, it becomes obvious that Marcos’ power and strength
acquire the false quality of impregnability. Who would think of opposing Marcos
when even his known worst enemies have succumbed to the pressures and
agreed to express public support for him?
Marcos would make use of any stratagem; he did not hesitate to spend and
bankrupt the country to win a reelection; he did not hesitate to declare martial
law; he would not hesitate to use helpless women and children.
President Marcos conceded that, upon the proclamation of martial law, as
a place Filipinos want to visit, the Philippines ranks somewhere between the
dentist’s office and Muntinglupa.
Such thoughts inspired him to give his country its jaunty new paint and
cosmetics job, with “balikbayan”, various beauty contests and other forms of
circuses for the entertainment of foreigners and natives as well.
The Philippine News published in late July a piece by Renato Yuson and I
would like to reproduce it here with approval:
Part XLI
The Marcos Coliseum
There's a big hunt for the Great Entertainment. Financed, managed,
encouraged and pushed by Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos, this drive is to leave no
stone unturned for that Show-of-all-Shows, that Circus-of-all-Circuses. New
Society agents are combing every nook and cranny of amusement capitals of
the world. They are everywhere, from the ballet schools of Russia to the karate
dojos of Okinawa and Japan, from the concert halls of Manhattan to the
basketball courts of the Bronx. Every manner of entertainment is being
scrutinized, studied, listed and catalogued for possible import to the Philippines.
Money is no consideration. The New Society is ready to throw everything
- not just greenbacks and facilities and manpower - into the deal. Who cares if
the Filipino people are starving? They will have circuses to keep them amused.
Marcos is master of the tricks of a successful dictatorship: keep the natives on
a steady diet of entertainment opium. It's the same recipe Nero used to keep
the citizens of Rome pacified.
Of course, we cannot have slaves and lions and gladiators nowadays. But
the New Society is trying its best to present their moral equivalent. Ali-Frazier
III. Fisher-Karpov Match. Miss Universe Contest. Ad Nauseam. The idea is to
nurture the basest instincts of the masses for sadism, fun, identification and
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
grandeur — while the new oligarchs secretly manipulate the reins of power and
wealth.
President Marcos knows the weaknesses of the Filipino. And he exploits
them with all the resources at his command. He knows many of the people are
dissatisfied with his regime, but he provides regular smorgasbord of outlandish
fun that there is an illusion of contentment and peace. Even as the people suffer
and starve. It's a varied fare of course - from sex (beauty contests and fashion
shows and bomba movies) to art (Van Cliburn) to sports (basketball and
karate).
It was in pursuit of the improbable fun that an old fraternity brother from the
college of law came to New York the other day. I was asleep when he rang me
up.
"Brod," he screamed into the phone, "this is Alex Antonio. Are you asleep?"
" Not anymore." I answered, as I barely managed to make out the time on
the table clock (2:15 a.m.)
"Look, brod, I just arrived from Colorado and I have no money to take a taxi
from Kennedy. Can you fetch me?"
I still do not know why I assented, for I had to drag myself to the bathroom
and wash the cobwebs off my brain. Soon, I was taking the empty Belt Parkway
to the airport. It occurred to me that I had not even asked Alex what he was
doing in town.
Alex had a blackcye, scratches on his face, a torn jacket.
Without waiting for me to ask, he explained: "It's a long story hut to make it
short, I bumped into a police raid somewhere while inquiring into some show
for the New Society."
Later, nursing a gin and tonic at my apartment, he revealed that he worked
as an assistant in the Game and Amusement Board in the Philippines. But while
watching a game in the midwest, he had to elbow and kick his way out of the
barn (losing his wallet in the process) when the police swooped down in their
squad cars. The game? Dogfights.
"So, what's the idea?" I asked.
"Well, we're starting to run out of really good ideas. Our boss is getting
impatient with all those leggy contests and basketball stars. He wants
something really extraordinary, something that could be scheduled on a regular
basis. Something out of Nero's Rome. So, it occurred to me to look into
dogfights which are, together with football and boxing and hockey, the closest
approximation of the Roman coliseum," he confessed.
"And what entertainment do you expect to see in New York?" I asked,
honestly dubious about the possibilities of fun in the Big Apple. "I really don't
know, but I understand there's always something to see in the Empire State,"
he said, as he winked mischievously.
"I am not too sure, brod," I said, "unless you are interested in importing a
few of the denizens of 42nd Street, of which you have too many already working
in hotels and being hospitable to foreign investors and tourists."
"No, what I am really interested in is the ambience of the place, the spirit of
America at work, as it were," he remarked, leaving me more mystified. "What I
mean is that you do have a way of keeping people entertainedhere, I'd like to
know the technique — the medium is the message, you know."
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
With that bit of McLuhanism, he winked again and gave me a hearty and
vigorous slap on the back.
In a nutshell, what he wanted to do was "feel" New York City. How do
people stay satisfied, uncomplaining? What is there in the Big Apple which
makes life seem so meaningful, even if the people spend most time chasing
their tails?
"There's something about the culture that breeds a kind of hero that loves
adventure and thrill or exults in danger, a kind of mentality out of Hemingway -
you know, the Big Safari or the Bull Fight. Americans are fed this daily diet of
disaster that is almost sexual. It is in the consumption of this staple of adventure
that many Americans find the meaning of existence, however empty and hollow
it may be," Alex pontificated, and for a while I noticed that impish grin that
seemed to savor every word. "This is the psyche I want to study and
experience."
Indeed I got his point quite readily. I had lived in the eastern seaboard for
the last five years and had seen a continuous program of entertainment, usually
based on adventure and competition, from season to season. At the moment,
it is Peter Benchley's Jaws; sometime back, it was Towering Inferno', further
back, it was . . . And how about the Mayaguez incident and the Vietnam
experience? Always, there was the quest for kicks, the desperate escape from
boredom. "Let's have some action," is a common expression, a signal to gird
the loins, to initiate some fun. American culture is based on a cosmic high noon,
the confrontation of two views or personalities or man with nature. Social
relevance is not necessary as long as there is an air of tension and danger, of
what Hemingway called "grace under pressure". It's in reality a constant escape
from the Self through action. It's primitive jungle in modern setting.
For once, Alex made sense to me, but what puzzled me was his desire to
implant this primitive aspect of western culture in the Philippines. "It's simple.,
brod," he said, "the Philippines is a dictatorship. The people need an outlet for
their dissatisfaction, or else their discontent will explode. At any rate, they must
be entertained and amused."
He called the phenomenon "coliseum syndrome" - that outlook which
considers life in general as a kind of sport, a big game. The New Society, he
said, aims to cultivate and encourage this coliseum mentality to give the
Filipinos a feeling of participation and worth. "So, where do you propose to
begin to have a picture of this Hemingway psyche?" I inquired.
"Well, I think I should begin with the summer games. Baseball, you know,
and soccer. Perhaps, we can also visit a few game and recreation areas like
Great Adventure and Jungle Habitat," he replied.
"But brod," I interjected, "I thought you wanted some thrills, some hijinks?"
"Let's start with the more routinary fun," he said. "After all, I've had enough
of the dogfights which turned out to be more dangerous to the spectators than
to the protagonists."
Looking at the telltale marks of his misadventure in the midwest, I agreed
and said, "Sure, you should settle down to the more homely entertainment like
reading mysteries and watching TV instead of prowling into dens of iniquities
all over town."
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
With that remark, I put Berlioz' Requiem on the turntable and settled to an
hour or two of escape from disaster and adventure. My adrenalin glands
certainly deserved a rest.
Like any man with pretensions of grandeur, Marcos wants to be made to
laugh, too.
Minister Mariano Ruiz, who was Malacanang protocol officer following the
retirement of Badong Zamora, had the patience to wait for his appointment as
Appointments Secretary in lieu of Secretary Venancio Duque who was
appointed one of the elections commissioners.
Ruiz now not only attempts to be appointments secretary. He also performs
the job of protocol officer, and court jester. At times, he even usurps the
functions of Clave, De Vega and Tuvera.
He is already having a feud with most of the military aides of the President.
One of the best jokes he entertains the President with is atall tale about
Elizabeth Day allegedly suing Secretary Romulo for assault with a “dead
weapon”.
The rebellion in Mindanao is going to be Mr. Marcos’ unending excuse for
continuing martial law throughout the country. He cited it as one of the grounds
for martial law in Proclamation No. 1081 .
But he will not admit that the rebellion broke out anew upon the imposition
of martial law. The Muslim Filipinos just can’t live without their guns. When the
military started telling them their guns would be collected, the Muslims started
to rebel.
Secretary of National Defense Enrile declared in a speech in July 1975 at
the National Defense College, that “the nation still faces the same threats as it
did since the imposition of martial law.” One reading the speech of the Defense
Secretary must begin to wonder what happened to all the alleged contrasts
between the Old and the New Society. Consider his language:
“We still face the spectre of internal subversion amidst the present
economic crisis, adopting a united front strategy with a decentralized
leadership.
There is the threat of domestic criminality, aggravated by an incipient
erosion of moral values in our society.
We are still plagued by corruption and abuses among some sectors of the
public service.
We have the secessionist movement in the South, which, coupled with the
economic crisis, constitutes the main problem of internal stability that we are
contending with today.” ( Bulletin Today, July 12, 1975).
Significantly, Marcos himself, in a speech delivered during the third
anniversary celebration of martial law held last September 1 9, 1 975, even went
further. He openly admitted the danger that the New Society “is giving birth to
a new Government elite, who resurrect in our midst the privileges we fought
in the past, who employ the powers of high office for their personal enrichment
. . . There are new sores that are clearly emerging. . . There has arisen massive
opportunities for graft and corruption, the misuse of influence, opportunities
which are now being exploited within the government service ... I raise my voice
in alarm today for we are in fact a nation divided against itself — divided
between urban and rural, rich and poor, privileged and underprivileged. Among
some of the poor, there is still the nagging fear that they have again been left
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
behind, and that we have liquidated an oligarchy only to set up a new oligarchy
. . . the dramatic gains of the past three years have ironically intensified natural
appetites for finery and show, for lavish parties, flashy cars, mansions, big
homes, expensive travel and other counter-productive activities.” The next day,
(September 20, 1975) the Daily Express and Times Journal, announced that
soon after the anniversary speech of the President, the First Lady enplaned for
New York “to deliver a Philippine statement on the establishment of a new
economic order” before the U.N. General Assembly, “and make propos-
als” in behalf of the Philippine government, concerning the “moral and human
dimensions of international relations.” The controlled mass media extolled the
anniversary announcement by the President of a sweeping reorganization of
government. Three cabinet members, quite old, had retired; three had re-
signed. One undersecretary, ten other ranking officials — including the heads
of the revenue and customs offices — had been relieved or had resigned; more
undesirable officials were supposed to have been fired. Some officials whose
resignations were accepted, were undoubtedly notorious; others apparently
innocent were not given a chance to defend themselves or even confront their
accusers. The one-man ruler is the supreme judge. There can be no redress,
no appeal. Knowledgeable people became increasingly skeptical as they
noticed that the bigtime operators at the very seat of power — including close
relatives, cronies, business associates, and trusted subordinates —
had been spared once again. Were they included when the President said:
“Against these enemies of the Republic, I now commit myself to do battle?”
Marcos has been anything but candid to his people. That has been his forte
all along; he would say one thing, and yet. . .
In an interview with newsmen, as reported by the United Press
International, he was quoted as having said: “If they answer ‘no’, we will
immediately dismantle the present administration and move into a
parliamentary form of government.” He was talking about the referendum
scheduled for Feb. 27, 1975, in which one of the vaguely-worded questions
was whether the people favor the continuation of martial law.
Marcos’ answer as quoted by the UPI was not an honest answer. He would
never allow the people to vote“no” to martial law; neither would he dismantle
martial law, if the people were really given the freedom to say “no” to his
dictatorship. Even his answer that the country will move into a parliamentary
form of government was equally dishonest. Why? Because he would have to
follow the provisions of the New Constitution and convene the interim National
Assembly which is charged by the new charter with the task of ushering the
country into the parliamentary form of government.
In the same interview, he was asked whether he did not feel it necessary
to reconvene Congress on an interim basis so that important foreign policy
decisions could be ratified. He answered: “I had hoped that I could but the
(world economic) crisis intervened.”
Another bare-faced lie. But he is not one who would be nailed down without
answering any question.
For, if there had been no world economic crisis, which martial law could not
possibly remedy, he probably would have answered that the Muslims are still
in rebellion in Mindanao or that a small band of NPAs magnified by Marcos
himself into several armed hundreds, are still roaming the hills of Palanan
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
in Isabela.
One of the long-range plans of Marcos is to suffer or tolerate within certain
limits the anti-Marcos political activities of the "old society" politicians, while
countering their every move with his own controlled propaganda machine. His
gambit is to outlive most of them, or hasten the demise of most of them. He
knows that the upcoming generation may no longer have any memories about
constitutional democracy, but only a forced liking for his constitutional
authoritarianism.
And, in order to swing the youth to his side, Marcos has ordered the
organization of secret training camps for youth corps in the Visayas and
Mindanao, and parts of Northern Luzon. He has not dared organize this in the
more sophisticated areas of the Tagalog regions of Central and Southern
Luzon. The training camps, operating under the guise of National Youth
Service, will turn out what would be the New Society equivalent of Hitler's youth
corps.
It is not only the youth that Marcos' various ruses of survival will work on.
Every aspect of life in the Philippines will be subjected to continuing barrage of
oppression, coupled with propaganda, in order to insure Marcos' perpetualion
in power.
Chapter XVII
Whither Marcos?
It will be a very long time before there can be a final perspective on the martial
regime in the Philippines, and indeed on Ferdinand E. Marcos. Surely, that
perspective has been greatly accelerated by the behavior of Ferdinand himself,
his extravagant and jet-setting wife, Imelda, his in-laws and cronies, and select
rapacious armed forces officers.
In spite of the evidently tightening noose of circumstances pointing to an
adverse historical verdict on his regime, Marcos will seek to maneuver around
in the vain hope that history would deal with him kindly. To be sure, his
misdeeds are many.
The Office of the President of any country is one of the most vulnerably
public positions in the world.
Society is so contrived that it is virtually impossible to combine power,
position and privacy - or even celebrity and privacy. Those willing to court fame,
or assume leadership, are by those very terms forced to relinquish seclusion.
What one takes in the way of glory or influence, one must pay for in constant
exposure to public scrutiny. No one in the ambit of fame is exempt from the
inexorable equation.
Hardly anyone disputed the wisdom of the imposition of martial law, since
they did not hold the martial guns anyway, and it was held out as temporary, to
be lifted just as soon as rebellion is ended and certain reforms are effected.
But what started out as a reform movement has grown into an ill-disguised
plot to perpetuate Dictator Marcos and his ilk in power, backed by their rapacity
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
and unbridled appetite for economic and political gains. And that became
evident during the second six months of the martial regime. Kokoy and the mili-
tary officers are still eyeing other lucrative aspects after devouring the Lopez
properties.
My greater fear is that the irreversible mechanism set into motion by the
imposition of martial law will in the long run bring a far greater curse on the
nation and all its citizens. The turmoil that is certain to follow upon his
overthrow, by death, resignation or other means, will be unimaginable and too
dreadful to comprehend.
Dictator Marcos has made no provisions for succession in the Constitution
which he extorted from the Constitutional Convention. He will have to answer
to history for the dire fate that awaits his nation.
Martial law has not solved the problem of law and order. Although the crime
rate improved markedly at the start of martial law, it is now back to near pre-
martial law levels. Crimes against property have increased and will continue to
increase as the economic situation worsens. Violence against persons by
civilians, is less; but its decline had been made up for by abuses committed by
the military, through unreasonable searches and seizures; indiscriminate
arrests, indefinite detentions, and frequent torture of political prisoners;
repression of some minorities like the Kalingas and Bontocs; and reprisals
against unarmed Muslims.
Martial law has not eliminated corruption in government. In fact, it has not
even meaningfully reduced it. Abuses of power and privilege by old politicos
are gone; but their place has been taken over by new mandarins who, unlike
the former, are not accountable to the people.
Nor has martial law re-structured our society. If at all, the gap between poor
and rich has widened because, as the paper on the economy shows, martial
law has not solved the problem of unemployment; and the runaway inflation
that afflicts us, brought about more by the inflationary policies of the martial
law regime than by world economic conditions, has battered the poor much
more than it has hurt the rich.
The impairment of the right to free self-organization, the elimination of the
right to strike, and the policy of keeping wages low, have stripped labor of any
defense against both inflation and management abuses; while the slow pace of
land reform, the weaknesses of supporting services for tenants, the increase in
costs, and the absence of any program for tenants on coconut and sugar lands
— and more important — for landless peasants, who far outnumber tenants —
all these factors have negated any meaningful gains for our rural population.
The government’s own statistics show that, despite its claim to greater
efficiency and swifter action because of martial law, it is no more capable of
pushing land reform now than it was before martial law.
But as they say, when difficult times hit upon the unfortunate lives of men
and people: “This too shall pass away.” But when? When will the illusion that a
repressive regime, bent on perpetuating itself in power, come to an ignominious
end? When will the extravaganza of manipulation end in order that we can
return to a life on a human scale of freedom and dignity?
How long will Marcos last? How long will the Filipinos tolerate his
oppressive rule? When is the inevitable day of reckoning? Those who go by
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
numerology say Marcos will last until 1 981 , citing the number of the martial law
proclamation, which is 1 081 . He will be a dictator for 1 0 years, or 1 0 years from
1972, which is 1981 . The figure 'MOST could also be read as 1 and 9 or 19,
and then 81 , which gives the numerologists 1 981 . How Marcos will go after 1 0
years in a manner that could either be peaceful or terrible for him.
Economic hardships will contribute to his downfall because all economic
forecasts indicate that there will be greater economic difficulties in the late 70s.
People will continue to groan under heavy taxation which he must resort to,
to support the heavy spending for the maintenance of a huge standing army.
The economic condition of the country may hold the key to a proper
understanding of the future. It will shape the thinking and the conduct of those
in authority, as well as of those who have a vital stake in the Philippine situation.
The present economic crisis is the main pre-occupation of the martial law
administration and its experts. They know - and it is a conviction which many
share — that it can mean their undoing. It has been said that the peasant would
rather be fed than be free. He may not appreciate the disappearance of civil
liberties, but he knows the meaning of hunger. The indicators and symptoms
point to one conclusion - the New Society is sorely pressed. The soaring rate
of inflation — which has impoverished the masses and eroded the income of
laborers and employees the high cost of living, the mounting figures of
unemployment, the number of industries that have hit rockbottom, the unending
procession of Filipinos who want to leave the country on any pretext, the lack
of confidence in the repeated assurances of high public officials, and the vocal
resentment of businessmen from whom contributions and donations have been
exacted - all these and more show now that the euphoria of the first year of
martial law has evaporated. The New Society is in a mess.
Since the economic ills of the nation are deeply rooted in the very nature
and character of our colonial economy, the situation will continue to deteriorate.
The economic policy of the New Society, which is export-oriented and gives the
red-carpet treatment to foreign investors, thereby increasing and perpetuating
alien domination of our economy, has only served to aggravate the crisis.
Unless the world market for Philippine exports registers an immediate turn
for the better, the balance of payments and trade deficit problems will create
many difficulties. The mid-year Report of the Philippine-American Investments
Corporation (PAIC) predicts a trade imbalance of between $850 and $950
million in 1974. Higher prices for major imports, on which local industries are
heavily dependent, will raise the import bill. Oil imports, now valued at $700
million a year, will further weaken the dollar reserve position. Policy-makers and
local businessmen are seriously concerned about the effects of continuing
increase in OPEC crude oil price. The Government is evidently pinning its
hopes on hitting oil, but so far none in commercial quantities has been located.
Oil from sources other than the Middle East, such as from Mainland China,
cannot be processed as yet by Philippine refineries.
Consequently, there will be a tremendous pressure on Government to
increase taxes and adopt drastic economic measures, which it knows will be
unpopular. In the meantime, it will rely on loans from international credit
institutions. Servicing and liquidating these loans will be a tough problem in the
years to come.
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In the Greater Manila Area, many laid-off workers have joined the ranks of
the unemployed. In several places in Luzon, a number of medium mining
industries have already suspended operations. In Western Visayas, the
depressed world market and the inability of theGovernment to meet the
legitimate expectations of the sugar producers have aroused much resentment.
During the world market boom, they pointed out, the Government - through a
subsidiary of the Philippine National Bank - controlled the exports and pocketed
the profits. They feel that the Government should now absorb the heavy losses.
In Eastern Visayas, the slump in copra has affected the entire region,
particularly the depressed areas of Samar and Leyte. The Mindanao situation
is pathetic. The timber and plywood industries have been crippled, operations
have been stopped, and thousands of laborers and employes have been
thrown out of work. On the other hand, the Muslim secessionist movement has
created incalculable dislocation, misery, and bitterness. Christians in the
Muslim areas are resentful over what they see as Government bias in favor of
Muslim "rebels" who have now joined the Administration. But the genuine
Muslim rebels and their leaders continue to be hostile towards the Government.
Trapped between the effects of recession and the Muslim insurgency,
countless people have been in a quandary. Many Christian families have
decided to migrate to various places in Visayas and Luzon. Only the agricultural
industries (pineapple and banana) in Bukidnon, Cotabato, and Davao del Norte
are doing very well. Laborers and farm workers are asking for their rightful share
in the huge profits of the giant multinational firms, but their voices are feeble
and they have lost their bargaining strength under martial law.
In the Greater Manila Area - always the most critical area in times of
upheaval prices of basic commodities have gone up beyond the reach of the
ordinary Filipino. According to official figures, about 1/3 of Manila's population
consists of squatters and slum-dwellers.
As the economic crisis looms, there will be an understandable tendency on
the part of the Administration to be more repressive. The one-man ruler is under
tremendous pressure from the military to clamp down on all "subversives" and
"disturbers of the public peace."
Increasing repression by the military and more misery for the masses may
well be the crucial mix in an irreversible crisis.
With the steady deterioration of the situation, more and more Filipinos will
be confronted by the classic dilemma: resistance with all its hazards, or
acquiescence with its prejudicial consequences to the whole nation.
The students, the educated unemployed, and the intellectuals who have
seen through the whole scheme since martial law was proclaimed, will be
among the first to resolve the dilemma, along with the most aggrieved elements
of society. They will probably resolve it by facing all the risks of redemptive
effort.
The Church, as usual, will be divided. The progressive elements will be
articulate but the conservatives, most of whom are subservient, will have the
votes in any showdown.
The business community will remain cowed and acquiescent, however
resentful some of its members may be. Profits derived from a "stable" social
and political order, and this is what is important to them. To the typical
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
businessman, the old dictum of Goethe applies: if he has to make a choice
between disorder and injustice, he would choose injustice.
By and large, the military cannot be expected to give up the power they now
enjoy. They have received tremendous material benefits and they see their
Commander -in-Chief as the source of their power and privileges. Discipline,
their own brand of loyalty, regional and personal considerations will weigh
heavilv on the senior officers. How the junior officers and enlisted men will react
to a crisis that can no longer be reversed and which will affect their own families
and relations, is anybody's guess.
The explosive Muslim situationwill continue to plague the authorities,
despite the apparent breakdown of the rebellion in some places. The basic
problems have not been resolved. They may have been exacerbated by the
coddling of the "balikbayan" rebels and the appointment of new officials who
are not accepted by the Muslim community.
The NPA is a source of endless headaches to the military establishment. It
had the ideology, the organization, and the willingness to fight against all odds.
Unless a third alternative is presented to the people, the country may well be
polarized between an army-supported dictatorship and a Maoist-inspired
movement.
When I appeared before the Fraser committee on June 1 7, 1 975, 1 stressed
the following pertinent points on the prospects for the future of the totalitarian
regime:
XIII. MY FINAL POINT OF ORDER
In addition to the aforecited and other known evils of an authoritarian
regime, I would like to stress that the betrayal of the high expectations of the
Filipino people for a reformed society under an authoritarian regime and the
dangerous flirtation being carried on by Mr. Marcos with the Communist
colossus in the Asian mainland should find direct relevance to the present task
of the honorable committeee.
It has been argued before (including by myself), and with justification, that,
in developing countries where the resources are limited and the demands on
these resources by the population are so great, a firm authoritarian regime
would best be equipped to bring about and maintain a program of development
with the resources allocated on the basis of priorities.
Likewise, foreign investors have also found out that, in their relations with
the host country, it was always easier to deal with “strong man” governments.
And so it was with the American investors in the Philippines. As a matter of fact,
to curry favor with American businessmen, President Marcos unconstitutional-
ly suspended the operation of a provision of the Constitution in order to extend
by one year the lifetime of the Parity Agreement, which should have expired
July 3,1974. The American businessmen then dutifully reported to their home
offices which, presumably in turn reported to the State Department, that
American investors and businessmen are enjoying a bonanza under martial
law.
However, an inquiry would show that American investors in the Philippines
are among the most disappointed lot. The old corruption which they dreaded
so much under the pre-martial law government is back. Every now and then,
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
their executives are called to the Music Room and slapped with assessments
for contribution to this or that Miss Universe Pageant project of the First
Lady. For, while the regime had so solemnly proclaimed the reformation of
society, it now has had to contend with realities, particularly in the Philippines,
of an endemic tradition of corruption of public officials. The U.S. press has so
courageously traced the ugly footprints of corruption right up to the office of the
President of the Philippines!
There is no doubt that the martial regime has gone corrupt, absolutely
corrupt. And as the axiom goes, when an authoritarian regime is corrupt, it
becomes, therefore, not an instrument for the reallocation of the country’s
resources, but for the accumulation of these resources by a limited few. When
a government fails to satisfy the growing needs of the populace, or worst yet,
fails to satisfy the appetite of rising expectations whipped up by the propaganda
machine, as in the Philippines, then civil unrest ensues. A situation then
develops which, as history has shown, is successfully exploited by the
Communists.
South Vietnam and Cambodia are the most recent examples ot corrupt
authoritarian regimes which, having failed to satisfy the needs of the populace,
fell to the Communist onslaught. A South Korean opposition lawmaker was
quoted by the news agencies recently as having stated that the fall of South
Vietnam to the Communists was due to the corruption of one man, Nguyen van
Thieu, and that the same thing could happen to Park Chung Hee’s South Korea.
I might add that the same misfortune could befall the Philippines.
The question, therefore, is whether it is in the best interest of the United
States to save the Philippines. Or, would the United States, in the face of
reversals in Indochina, abandon the Far East and retreat to the shores of
California?
To my mind, the answers must be in the affirmative to the first poser, and
negative to the second question. But the second query deserves the first
answer and explanation.
It has been the traditional policy of the United States to fight its wars with
aggressors outside the mainland United States. To fight such wars within the
United States mainland would understandably prove very costly in terms of loss
of human lives, American lives, and terrible destruction of properties and
installations. This is a major rationale in the global defense system of the Unit-
ed States as established in a network of defense treaties with countries around
the globe through the years.
Now, the Philippines is a vital link in the defense Ime drawn by the United
States in the Pacific and Oceania. The biggest U.S. air force and naval bases
outside continental United States are located in the Philippines, thus making
the Philippines the most important link in the defense setup. But a threat has
surfaced to this vital defense network by the establishment by Mr. Marcos of an
authoritarian regime. Having turned corrupt and betrayed the expectations of
the Filipino people, the dictatorship now exposes the country to a clear and
present danger of a Communist take-over. The Marcos regime has thereby
created the threat of a Portugal-type risk or danger to a major defense network
of the United States. While the corruption within the martial regime and the
repression of legitimate dissenting groups, such as genuinely-motivated
political leaders and nuns and priests, go on unabated, the Communists have
Primitivo Mijares Page 3<?4
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
gone underground and are organizing and expanding rapidly. The
establishment of diplomatic ties with Mao’s China on the embassy level would
soon give Peking and its agents direct access to the Maoist rebels in the hills
of Sierra Madre. Only last June 3,1975, “Reuters” news agency dispatched
a story from Peking that a Red Chinese press attache in Canada was expelled
by Ottawa authorities because he was nabbed smuggling money ($70,000.00)
into the United States to aid leftist insurgents in the Philippines. With the
Marcos-Mao tete-a-tete, there won’t be any need for such a circuitous route for
Mao’s agents to destroy America’s defense network from the Philippine side.
How should the United States deal with the problem posed by the
dictatorship of Marcos to America’s Asian defense network? Mr. Marcos should
be told in no uncertain terms that the United States will not support his
repressive regime and he should, therefore, restore democratic rule in the
country, relinquish his dictatorial powers, and stop immediately the internment
of political prisoners.
One thing I would like to remind the committee of is this: Mr. Marcos is a
very shrewd man. He believes that his newly-established alliance with Mao
TseTung elevates him to a position of strength in bargaining for better terms on
the Philippines-United States defense arrangements. Mr. Marcos realizes that
the U.S. government, whether it likes it or not, is in no position to “de-stabilize”
his martial regime, at least not until after the American presidential elections of
1976.
Mr. Marcos has taken cognizance, however, of the new wind blowing in the
U.S. Congress concerning the reexamination of U.S. aid policy towards the
Philippines. It was precisely in anticipation of this reexamination task by this
committee that Mr. Marcos started beaming messages all over that he himself
wants such a reexamination of all Philippine treaties with the United States. He
was hoping that, since he himself had already called for the restudy, the U.S.
Congress would no longer do that. Mr. Marcos is a master of the strategy of
preemptive strike. At the same time, Mr. Marcos started preparing the minds of
the Filipino people to the possibility of a cutback or complete denial of U.S. aid
to the Philippines. His gambit is to claim later, if aid be really cut or denied, that
he himself had asked for such action from the U.S. government because aid
was being given under terms so iniquitous and derogatory to the self-respect
and dignity of a free country as the Philippines is.
The regime’s propaganda line has already been passed around to the
effect that the American assistance to the Philippines is not really much, only
about $100 million a year. The line now being mouthed by Manila’s press,
obviously under the baton of President Marcos himself, is that the $1 00 million
U.S. aid is less than FIVE (5%) percent of the country’s export income, and
could easily be covered by resources available to the Philippines, if finally
cut off. In any case, so the propaganda line goes, about 60 percent of U.S. aid
goes to salaries and maintenance of U.S. personnel administering the aid; U.S.
AID personnel are in turn given access to high councils of government, with
opportunities to spy, meddle and spread gossips and rumors disruptive of the
aims of the authoritarian regime.
While U.S. aid is not really much, the fact that it is being given, with the
undeniable implication that its grant is a direct support of the martial regime, is
what really counts; it serves as a stabilizing factor to the authoritarian regime,
Primitivo Mijares Page 345
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
while it deters any massive opposition that could compel Mr. Marcos to restore
democracy in my hapless country.
The current state of repression and burgeoning upheaval occasioned by
the authoritarian rule set upon the Filipinos must necessarily make a claim on
the conscience of Dictator Marcos and his wife, Imelda, the AFP generals and
the Cabinet members, Kokoy Romualdez and other in-laws of the President
who are the only ones really profiting from the state of repression and
oppression in the Philippines.
They cannot escape the obvious question: If the implementation of martial
law was misguided, are we to continue it further until it finally becomes a
national nightmare?
A calmer reckoning of Marcos' responsibility must be in several stages - his
plotting in the ROTC bivouac areas, the killing of Julio Nahindasan, his
marriage to Imelda, the taste of powers of the presidency and the imposition of
martial law for perpetuating himself, his wife and/or son in power.
This process is not new. History has guided the President; will he also allow
a traditional ending to his rule - the gallows for overthrown despots?
Now, to lift martial law? Marcos would not do that. For him to do so now
would render his guilt to his nation so palpable - all his "daring and sacrifices"
for nothing. Hence, he must concoct more deceptions and always more to save
himself from an adverse verdict of history in the hope that such deceptions
would hold down historians to give him a fair judgment. But the series of lies
and deceptions will victimize his conscience and he will trip along the way long
enough for people or another scheming group, like Imelda and Kokoy on the
one hand, and the military clique on the other, to decapitate him.
The people of the Philippines did not, never did, "draft" Marcos for the
presidency for life. His was only to serve four years - as was the tradition in the
country; but he cheated his way into a second term, and concocted all those
excuses to impose martial law on the eve of the end of the illegally-won second
term as President.
What should be circumstantially useful a tack for Dictator Marcos to take to
lead the country through a wrenching readjustment under martial law?
He cannot rely on military coercion all the time. He cannot have non-
partisan support merely by asking for it or continuing a perpetual climate of fear.
It takes special political and intellectual conditions for that to happen, and sad
to admit, both have been lacking. Plus, candor which has been absent
conspicuously, too.
The political problems can be solved, if Marcos would be mentally honest
and truthful for once — he should discipline his own instincts, instead of being
a recluse and listening only to the self-serving advices that filter through his
cordon sanitaire.
So far, the President has been unable to decide whether he wants the
military to be his sole ally or the politicians or his clique of cronies and his
insatiable in-laws.
Most of the time his public pronouncements are laced with evidence of
unresolved issues in his own thinking.
He would ask for cooperation, and yet, in another forum, he would launch
unto an unbridled imputation of blame for the ills of the Old Society to the old
Primitivo Mijares Page 336
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Congress or the “backsliders.” Blame everything or everybody, but his own
doing or himself.
The President cannot have it both ways. Even if he opts for reconciliation,
rather than recrimination, he would have to supply a fresh concept of the
Philippines’ national interest as a basis for wide-ranging non-partisan support.
The “discarded” politicians who still have a lot of say among their constituencies
must be convinced that the New Society is not just for the generals, Marcos
cronies and Kokoy and the other Marcos in-laws.
He must have other uses for the national leaders other than just parading
them whenever some foreigner or visiting U.S. lawmakers are around. I am
sure they curse him behind his back for making them adornments in his show
window of a smiling martial law.
The President must not engage in mere word games. The national policy
cannot be simply a collection of special economic and political interest of the
Marcoses, Kokoy and the cronies. The conceptual and strategic confusion in
the New Society has to be clarified, not by mere word games, but by deed by
the President.
Let us not be naive to think that Marcos will allow himself to be caught in
Malacanang by a counter-revolution. Of course, he knew the stakes when he
decided to impose martial law. He knew he could either rule for life or one day
he might just be assassinated or overthrown. He has prepared himself to accept
death in the hands of assassins or revolutionaries.
Neither is he stupid not to make provisions for living a life of luxury and ease
somewhere, like an exiled King Farouk, if the Philippines can no longer be his
domain. After all, he has already amassed so much. His Swiss bank accounts
are fabulous but known only to himself — not even to Imelda who has her own.
There are various reasons why Dictator Marcos will never lift martial law.
Among them are:
1) It is part of a plan to perpetuate himself in power;
2) Fear that he would offend the military who wouldn't want to lose their
powers now;
3) Fear he would offend sectors of the military which he has misled into
going along with him on the imposition of martial law in the honest belief that
there was a real escalating rebellion. On the other hand, some military officers
have sworn an oath of personal loyalty to Marcos before martial law was
proclaimed and now they are afraid to go back on it;
4) Imelda, Kokoy and Benedicto would advise him against it, realizing as
they do that, the moment the coercive process of martial law is removed, they
would lose their ill-gotten wealth and their heads to the irate citizens.
If the pressure builds up against the martial regime. Marcos will lift martial
law - in name only. He will go through the motions of revoking Proclamation
Nos. 1081 and 1104 on some auspicious occasion or date, like his birthday or
the natal day of Mrs. Marcos and present such act as a "gift" to the Filipino
people.
However, the situation will not change. It will still be the same dog with a
different collar. The restrictions imposed upon the proclamation of martial law
Primitivo Mijares Page 347
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
will be retained. Dictator Marcos will then spell out the frame of reference for
such restrictions under the terms of the provisions of the Internal Security Act
by which he created the NISA and set up the apparat of the country's secret
police, and enumerated the "do's" and "don't's" for political parties and the press
as well as the labor unions. There will be no uniformed soldiers; only the hooded
secret police.
Marcos spelled out to me and De Vega the vague details of this stage of
his dictatorship during several talks we used to hold in his Study Room on
Saturdays, the day when no callers are scheduled so the President could be
with his assistants, which included myself.
Among the plans of the President is to strengthen the apparatus of the
Presidential Security Command, including its secret police network, to a point
when he no longer would have to rely on the armed forces for the stability of
his dictatorship. By that time, he would do away with the military as his main
support, with a statement that the armed forces are being restored to its
professional status and would no longer be needed to run the government.
It is unfair to state that the continuous bombardment by the hordes of
Palace photographers and, during martial law, the controlled media, brought
out the latent talent for play-acting on the part of Ferdinand and Imelda. They
have had it for so long.
Marcos always speaks in the self-aggrandizing royal "we" instead of the
contemporary and slightly deranged public relations "he".
The Dictator has welcomed with open arms the insidious encroachments of
personal fantasy on life as it is, and embraced the phantom of living in or
projecting a heroic account of himself.
What has taken place in Malacanang, especially since the imposition of
martial law, is something quite different from the ordinary image project that is
a necessary tool of governing, something more nearly akin to the posture and
strut we associate with newly-adolescent boys - a kind of self-consciousness
gone mad. They deserve general opprobrium for this.
He has not yet collapsed, but I predict that when he does, then historians
will seize on this aspect of his behavior to illustrate the perils of a politician's
indulging that instinct for what is immediate and authentic into a pseudo-reality
for mass consumption. The politician himself loses touch (he is playing to an
imaginary audience not present) and the public discourse that flows from his
acts is hopelessly falsified and skewed and deep down everyone knows it.
Since the temptation to this kind of contrivance goes with the job of the
presidency, the Marcoses have notoriously showed themselves to be politicians
obsessed with image; no consternation may be seen being displayed by the
hordes of Palace TV, movie and still cameramen.
Marcos apparently wants to do another De Gaulle, that artful of modern
politicians who had a breath-taking sense of the legitimate uses to which
mystery, symbolism and "image" could be put. No one can fault him for not
trying to create an illusion of mystery and larger-than-life purpose and strength
which he wants people to believe he had brought into the national leadership
when he proclaimed martial law. He resorts to all contrivances to lead people
into a perception of the supposed noble objectives he has for the New Society.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The posture of the conjugal dictatorship in the Philippines is that the former
oligarchs, especially the Lopezes, should never again regain their position of
economic and political strength to be able to use this once more against the
Marcoses or any other ruling clique that might succeed their joint reign.
In a word, they want no other power brokers outside themselves in any
future Philippine regime.
Besides, they want to erase the stigma that Marcos was power-brokered by
the Lopezes into the presidency in 1965. When the press in Manila still had its
full freedom, and the charges were insinuated that they were acting as ingrates
by going after the Lopezes, the joint rulers invariably resorted to this defense:
If we really owe them anything, do you think we would be behaving this way?
Assuming that the Lopezes did help, what did they expect of Marcos? Perpetual
gratitude?
How so different from the posture of the late widely-lamented President
Ramon Magsaysay who, on being asked for a favor in return for a pre-election
campaign contribution given by gambler Ted Lewin, retorted: "But he gave me
that money for the cause of good government; how can I now accede to this
request which would lead to bad government? Tell him, 'no I can't do it'."
The strongest pillar of the martial regime in the Philippines is the loyalty of
the present general officers of the armed forces to Marcos. Take them all out
today and tomorrow Marcos will find himself inside (a stockade) looking out, at
best. That is, if the junior officers do not decide to execute him.
But the same pillar of strength on which Marcos relies so much could also
be the source of his own weakness. For, how long can he keep the generals in
the service, while non-llocano officers grumble over their long over-due
promotions? Most of the generals are overstaying; they should have been
retired a long time ago.
Some of the “overstayers” are General Romeo Espino, AFP chief of staff;
Major General Jose Rancudo, air force chief; Major General Zagala, army chief;
and Brig. Gen. Guillermo Pecache, home defense force chief.
Soon there would be an inexorable pressure from below, with the junior
officers trying military methods punishable by the articles of war to get rid of the
aging generals and the man who condones their over-staying.
A number of displaced political leaders preach and hope with public piety
pray that Marcos would succeed in his task of reforming the country into a new
society. However, privately they irreverently seek his failure or even early
demise — so they can take over once more.
One politician in the Philippines who still dares dream of recapturing old
glory is Speaker Comelio T. Villareal who has always played the docile man to
Marcos. He has repeatedly told the Dictator, “I am your man.”
Villareal’s game is for Marcos to convene the interim National Assembly
and have himself elected Speaker of the Assembly — and Marcos as the
interim Prime Minister. As ISpeaker, he had repeatedly assured the President,
he should be able to “handle” (with adequate funds, of course) the
assemblymen and make them do what Marcos wante to run the government
But what is not being articulated by Villareal is that, with his cunning and
capacity to manipulate public funds, he would hope to be able to stir enough
Primitivo Mijares Page 3<?<?
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
upheavals in the assembly to topple Marcos as Prime Minister and have himself
elected as the new leader of the country in no time at all.
Of course, Marcos had anticipated this. And that is the reason, at least one
of them, the Dictator has not prepared himself to convene the interim National
Assembly as mandated by the New Constitution.
Marcos’ plans is to wait until such time when potential rivals for the position
of Prime Minister, like Speaker Vilareal, Senator President Gil J. Puyat,
Senators Jovito Salonga, Jose W. Diokno, or even imprisoned Benigno S.
Aquino, Jr. shall have definitely cancelled themselves out of contention from
the premier’s post.
Marcos has no illusions about what might happen to him should there be a
counter-revolution. He knows he would probably lose his head or face the firing
squad.
Knowing the consequences of his having placed the country under martial
law he has taken steps to prevent the defeat of his program; security is the No.
1 priority of such program. Marcos is keeping himself physically fit at all times,
which is one reason why one might call him a lazy President. Marcos really
docs not do much work, but he makes his work schedule such that people
would think that he is a very busy man who would even forego his lunch just to
be able to attend to his presidential duties. And when callers observe that it is
way past lunch time, he would usually remark, "Oh, yes, we have been up and
working since 5 a.m. this morning."
Marcos devotes very little time to official work. He usually wakes up at 5
a.m. when he asks if any matter involving national security, especially his
personal security, had cropped up during the night while he was asleep. If
nothing demands his immediate personal attention, he goes back to bed and is
awakened at about 9 a.m., at which time he drinks his fruit juice and lazily stays
in bed for more sleep. By about 10 a.m., when he officially schedules his first
caller, he buzzes the Agent on duty in the communications room to inquire if
the visitors scheduled for the day have started coming in. On being answered
in the affirmative, Marcos would then have a 15-minute exercise in his small
gymnasium right near his bedroom, then have a shower and the usual heavy
breakfast of fried rice. At about 11:15 a.m., Marcos starts receiving his callers
who have been scheduled for as early as 10 a.m. It is only when he has to
receive the credentials of a foreign envoy that he promptly starts his official
work at 10 a.m. Marcos attends to his work and callers up to about 2:30 p.m.
He takes his lunch at about that time, after which he takes a nap with
instructions that he be awakened at 4 p.m., by which time, his playmates (golf
Of pelota) are supposd to be waiting for him at the Malacanang Park. However,
he does not really cross over to the park to play either pelota or golf until about
5 p.m. After the round of golf or pelota, the President then indulges in his own
Buddhist-like physical workout, and then takes in an invigorating massage. He
goes back to the Palace to attend a reception or dinner or, if there is none, he
goes into his private study to write or make entries into his memoirs,
presumably to falsify more documents to insure his proper niche in history.
Marcos can give up almost anything in any given day, except his recreation
and physical exercises. This easily leads one to conclude that Marcos wants to
keep physically fit for a long, long reign ala-Franco of Spain.
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Despite the luxury and easy living Marcos enjoys, I doubt whether the
Philippine dictator ever sleeps soundly at all. He would lie alone in Suite No. 1 ,
guarded in the Palace by a division of elite security men, and in the Palace
building, countless security agents take turns. Sometimes, to keep themselves
from being bored, they open the President's Study Room television set, and
listen to the muffled sound of the picture being shown.
Marcos is now about 58, entering the period of self-appraisal when the past
presents itself for assessment. He must be seeing the faces of people he has
oppressed, people whose properties he had or allowed to be confiscated, like
the properties of the Lopezes and the Jacintos. He must be remembering the
way he has hacked his way towards absolute power, with the heads of those
who dared oppose him on the wayside. He must be trying to equate all these
with supposed achievements of the New Society, the new image of the country,
compared to the aUeged bad image of the political and economic oligarchs of
premartial law days.
When martial law was declared in the Philippines, the media in America
either was favorable to Mr. Marcos or at worst gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Now, there is hardly a newspaper, television or radio station that speaks
well of the Marcos dictatorship. In fact, the media in the free world has become
generally hostile to the one-man rule of Mr. Marcos in the Philippines.
What has brought about this turnabout on Mr. Marcos?
The biggest blame must, of course, be on Dictator and Diktadora Marcoses
themselves. Theirs were, firstly, not the cause of justice, truth and virtue.
But nobody could have been made aware of the ugly truth about this
conjugal dictatorship had there not been a systematic and unceasing effort to
bring these facts to the world outside the Philippines.
To be sure, the anti-martial law forces have on their side former Senator
Manglapus, perhaps the most articulate and eloquent Filipino of his time in
several foreign and Philippine languages.
The Marcos dictatorship will never admit it but what hurts it most in the eyes
of the world and particularly with the American Congress and media was the
information and propaganda campaign mounted against the regime by the
Movement for a Free Philippines, the Union for a Democratic Philippines, the
National Coordinating Committee ortne Anti-Martial Law Coalition, the Friends
ot the Filipino People, and allied groups.
Particularly effective in turning the US Congress and media against Mr.
Marcos was the aspect of the concerted campaign which concentrated on
mailing to American legislators and American media persons hitherto unknown
facts about Dictator and Mrs. Marcos - widespread corruption, extravagance,
social climbing and gate-crashing antics of Imelda Marcos, phoney and
exaggerated war records of Marcos, the greed for material gain of the Marcos
couple and their relatives and cronies, and the many hoaxes pulled by the
Marcos dictatorship on a gullible and unknowing world.
So damaging was this information campaign against the Marcos regime
that a “counter-demolition” team headed by Ifugao Provincial Governor
Gualberto Lumauig was dispatched to Detroit, Michigan, where Garcia, MFP
propaganda chief and architect, was printing and mailing thousands of
“revealing and inflammatory” literature against the Marcos dictatorship.
Garcia’s operations and activities were being funded and supported by a
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
number of Filipino physicians in Michigan.
A confrontation between Marcos forces and Filipino consular officials on
the one hand and the MFP people on the other hand in Michigan erupted in a
heated verbal exchange in an airport hotel and climaxed with a death threat
levelled against Garcia by a member of the Marcos group.
The Marcos regime has no reason to wish Garcia a long life. His proposal
for a Radio Free Philippines has been given top priority by the MFP. With world
figures like William Winter, who was the original broadcaster of Voice of
Freedom which beamed news to the Philippines during the dark days of World
War II, volunteering his services, and Paul Ringler, chairman of the board of
the International Press Institute, placing his considerable influence and prestige
in support of the radio project, RFP may yet become the most effective
instrument in rousing the people at home against the totalitarian regime.
Later, as the other anti-martial law organizations became more organized,
the Friends of the Filipino People based in Boston and the Katipunan ng
Demokratikong Pilipino (KDP) based in San Francisco, mounted parallel
propaganda operations and contributed immeasurably to turning the tide of the
media and congressional campaign against the Marcos dictatorship.
How effective and successful these propaganda operations can be gauged
from the reaction of the Marcos regime. To counter the propaganda onslaught
against it. the Marcos dictatorship launched multi-million dollar projects - the
"balikbayan" program, expensive publications and newspaper supplements,
cultural and dance troupes, beauty pageants, the world championship bout
between Muhammad AH and Joe Frazier and all sorts of international contests,
including a weightlifting tournament.
The irony and contradiction unrealized by the geniuses of the Marcos
regime is the spectacle of an impoverished nation, publicly panhandling for
American aid, bankrupting its treasury holding sideshows and circuses to
impress the outside world that things have become better in the Philippines and
at the same time holding the country in the iron grip of martial law — a situation
only imposed in times of war or widespread rebellion.
In the meantime, the mail campaign against the Marcos tyranny continues,
with the bulk of the materials now coming from clippings of articles in American
publications and the targets of the mail now including more and more people in
the Philippines, particularly elements of the Philippine military at all levels.
By no means should the anti-martial law elements in America be smug.
There will be elements in their own ranks, whether Marcos infiltrators or well-
meaning but counter-productive friends who will try to get their organizations
go where Marcos wants them. For example, it would make Mr. Marcos very
happy to see his foes attacking him on the so-called “basic issues”
of whether martial law is illegal or not, whether he is the legal or illegal head of
state, whether his decrees and referendums have bases in law, and all those
matters which lend themselves to endless legalistic debates and academic
discussions which do not hurt Marcos but which he, in fact, welcomes, because
these make him appear as a ruler who welcomes dissent so long as they are
“constructive criticism.”
If Watergate is to have any lessons for those engaged in propaganda
efforts, it is the fact that those “little” things which damage a corrupt politician’s
credibility beyond repair are the most effective devices because these are what
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
capture the public’s emotions and imagination.
The outraged reaction of exiles has now subtly spread, challenging
Filipinos everywhere to undertake any form of activity that would show defiance
of martial law, e.g. protest marches, teach-ins, funeral marches, nonpayment
of taxes and other forms of civil disobedience.
Even the American Congress is astir, practically calling Philippine
diplomatic officials and President Marcos himself as liars on the question of
suppression of human rights and press freedom in the Philippines.
In a campaign to bring the truth about the Philippines to public attention, a
non-Filipino and his Filipino wife might as well be credited with a lot of guts and
savvy for the yeoman effort. He is Steve Psinakis and his wife is Presentacion
Lopez Psinakis, the only daughter of the late Don Eugenio Lopez, Sr. It is said
that, ironically, Presentacion, the only daughter out of five children, is also the
only Lopez child who inherited the strong will of her father and the determination
to fight for her beliefs against all odds and at any cost.
Steve Psinakis is an ordinary engineer and business executive who, after
living ten years in the Philippines (1959-1969), moved to his native country in
Athens, Greece with his wife and children early in 1969. The Psinakises lived
in Athens until late 1974 but, between 1972 and 1974. they used to visit
periodically the ailing Lopez Sr. residing in San Francisco.
It was during one of these visits to San Francisco in Novermber 1 974 when
on November 1 0. Steve received an urgent call from Geny's eldest son. Gabby,
asking Steve to fly to Manila immediately on "a matter of life and death". Upon
his arrival in Manila on November 1 2, Chita Lopez, the wife of Geny, told Steve
about Geny's decision to go on a hunger strike beginning November 18.
Psikanis quickly grasped the import of Geny's planned hunger strike.
Steve's first question was whether the hunger was intended to get Geny's
release or whether he wanted to risk his life for the benefit of all political
prisoners who, like himself, were unjustly imprisoned by Marcos without
charges and without trial. Geny's reply, through Chita, was the latter. Geny had
precisely asked for Steve, a close friend long before the marriage to his sister,
because he wanted Steve to carry on the fight abroad for the benefit of all
political prisoners and not for his personal benefit.
So, on November 14, Steve and Chita and Gabby visited Geny at Fort
Bonifacio. Geny reassured Steve that he was going on a hunger strike on
November 18, to secure the release of all political prisoners and reiterated his
request that Steve assist Chita in calling a press conference on November 18
to announce his hunger strike Geny then signed a statement announcing his"
hunger strike - for release on November 1 8. However, on the way out from Fort
Bonifacio, the Lopez hunger strike statement was discovered by an alert guard
inside the purse of Chita Lopez; the guard then had the statement xeroxed
before giving it back to Chita. Right after being cleared out of the Fort Bonifacio
gates, about 1 1 :30 a.m., Psinakis quickly decided that Chita should announce
that very' day the contemplated hunger strike of Geny on November 18, lest
Marcos succeed in preempting Geny on the impact of his hunger strike by a
series of possible moves he could take, like announcing that Geny has been
charged in court of this or that crime.
Psinakis himself felt that his presence in Manila had become untenable.
Marcos certainly would go after him for coordinating with Geny on the hunger
Primitivo Mijares Page 4-03
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
strike statement. Immediately after leaving Fort Bonifacio, he booked himself
on a Philippine Air Lines flight out of Manila in the same afternoon and in
anticipation of a hasty arrest order, he checked in at the PAL counter as earlv
as 1 p.m. Psinakis also booked his son, Rogy, on another flight out of Manila
(a Pan American Airways flight) in order that Marcos would not be able to arrest
and hold their son also as a hostage. For by then, Psinakis had firmly nade up
his mind that he would conduct a sustained information campaign in the United
States, specially among the mass media and members of the United States
Congress, on the repression and oppression taking place in the Philippines.
Psinakis has never wavered in his determination to expose the truth about
the Marcos dictatorship. He has repeatedly explained that he was conducting
his crusade in the interest of a cause which a friend (Geny) has taken upon
himself and which he (Geny) had asked Psinakis to champion in the United
States. Psinakis explained it this way:
“I know that Geny is a man dedicated to his country; he has the
determination and strength to fight for his principles and I am sure he will not
hesitate to end his life through the hunger strike if his call for justice is not
answered.
“I feel that his cause is noble and selfless since he is undertaking this
sacrifice to call the attention of the freedom-loving peoples oT the world on the
plight of thousands of prisoners like him whose fate is unknown.
“I reside with my family in Greece where very recently a similar dictatorial
regime was replaced by a democratic government. This was accomplished
through sacrifices of courageous men like Geny. It is a fact that, just like the
Greek dictatorship, there is no freedom of the press within the Philippines. The
only way to bring out the truth about oppression in the Philippines is through
the press of the free world.
“I share my wife’s deep concern for the Philippines and her fears for the life
of her brother. I stand by her in her own struggle to support her brother’s fight.”
Since he started his fight for "truth, justice and freedom" in the Philippines,
Psinakis received several death threats from Marcos agents or supporters, the
first one during the last week of November 1974, when the Lopez-Osmena
hunger strike was still in progress and the Psinakis couple was in New York
gathering support from Congress and publicity through the press.
However the Psinakises ignored the threats and did not report them either
to the US Government or to the press realizing that, since the threats were not
documented and could not be proven, Psinakis could be blamed for "heroics"
or "publicity stunts."
The Psinakis "snub" to the Marcos threats paid off. On February 3, 1976
Marcos decided to threaten the Psinakises once more in a manner which would
leave no doubt that the threat was factual and directly from Marcos. The threat
message was conveyed through the incarcerated Geny Lopez by overseas
telephone directly to Psinakis, thus leaving no doubt as to the origin of the
"message." Geny is Marcos' prisoner and could not possibly have called
Psinakis in San Francisco without Marcos' instructions.
Psinakis, having this time the evidence to support his claim, reported the
threat to the US Government and to the press placing Marcos again on the
Primitivo Mijares Page 404
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
defensive and forcing him to attempt and cover-up his crime with ridiculous and
incredible denials.
There are two distinct characteristics about the modus operandi of the
Psinakis couple which account for most of the success of their campaign.
1. They operate alone and in absolute secrecy. No one, but no one knows
the plans of the Psinakis couple until they make their plans known themselves
and, by that time, they want their plans known by everyone.
This characteristic has frustrated and damaged Marcos more than anything
else because he has no way of infiltrating the "Psinakis organization" since
there is no organization to be infiltrated and no way to frustrate their plans since
there is no way to learn their plans in advance.
The Psinakises "secret approach" places Marcos always on the defensive;
Marcos then tries to "explain" the exposes of the Psinakises rather than attack
the Psinakis plans in advance.
2. The exposes and information revealed by the Psinakises have been
truthful, accurate and usually well-documented. Both Steve and Presy,
particularly Presy, possess a great deal of "personal" information about the
Marcoses, and their frontclan. but they have never exposed cheap gossip, or
rumors or hearsay without substantial documentation.
Although, for example, the Psinakises have spoken frequently of the
corruption of the Marcos family and cronies, specifically about Marcos, Imelda,
Kokoy and Benedicto, they have always backed their accusations with
documents. In fact they had hoped that the Marcoses would challenge the
PsinaJcis accusations in international courts, however, in spite of the fact that
Marcos has threatened to sue several times, he always shamelessly withdrew
from his threats, knowing that he (Marcos) would be disgraced in a US court.
This second characteristic has established a respected credibility for the
Psinakis couple among US Government officials and among the international
press.
The Psinakises have repeatedly stated that their only weapon against
Marcos is TRUTH. Consequently: “If we deviate from the truth, we would lose
the only weapon against the Marcoses who have all the power, resources and
every other weapon at their disposal except the power of TRUTH”.
Contrary to the many official statements by several Congressional leaders
challenging the veracity of information submitted by Marcos and his high-
ranking officials, there has not been a single case wherein the veracity of
reports submitted by the Psinakises have been challenged by anyone except,
of course, by Marcos and his agents. It is noteworthy to mention that in a letter
of Congressman Michael J. Harrington, to the U.S. Attorney General Edward
Levy, Congressman Harrington stated:
“I have corresponded with Mr. Psinakis before, and although he is
emotionally and personally involved in this case, his previous communications
have been careful, deliberate and responsible. I believe the contents of his
letter deserves the most careful attention.”
J.G. Quijano, the courtly lawyer of the now suppressed Philippines Free
Press, was to play a prominent role in bringing to the attention of the world
press the plight of Lopez Jr. and other Filipino political prisoners. Quijano was
Primitivo Mijares Page 405
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
in Poughkeepsie, New York, in November 1974. He was undecided on
attending the World Press Symposium in Racine, Wisconsin scheduled that
month because he felt the International Press Institute, of which he was a.
member, was already represented by its director, Ernest Meyer and Paul
Ringler, chairman of the board.
But when his law partner in Manila, Joker Arroyo, and Alex Esclamado,
publisher of the Philippine News, called Quftano to inform him that Lopez Jr.
was on the verge of death, he flew to Racine on November 24 for the press
meet. Ringler and Meyer scheduled Quijano to address the body the following
day. After Quijano's remarks where he said the Lopez case exemplified Marcos'
"absolute and ruthless control of the press," the symposium sent a cable of
protests to Marcos, demanding that Lopez "be set free or brought immediately
to trial in open court, if there is a legitimate charge against him." As World Press
Freedom, the official report of the symposium stated: "Within a week, the
Philippine government announced that Lopez soon would be brought to trial."
Aside from helping bring about the release of hundreds of political prisoners
by his action on the Lopez case. Quijano also succeeded in working for the
expulsion of the Marcos controlled press from the International Press Institute
during its executive board meeting in January. 1971, in Zurich, a move later
unanimously approved at the convention of the IP 1 June, 1975. Because of
the refusal of the Japanese consul in San Francisco to grant him a visa. Quijano
was not able to attend the IPI convention in Kyoto held May 11, 1974. Marcos
retaliated against Quijano by cancelling his passport on orders of Manuel
Collantes, acting secretary of foreign affairs.
Like Psinakis, there is another strong-willed man who has carried on an
unrelenting day and night campaign to expose the truth of the Marcos
dictatorship in the Philippines. The man, Alejandro A. Esclamado, has not
bothered to pay attention to the various forms of harassment that Marcos and
his minion have tried in order to silence him and kill his newspaper, the
Philippine News. Alex finds solace in the fact that his name and that of his wife,
Lourdes Mitra-Esclamado, are synonymous to anti-dictatorship in the
Philippines. Alex has a band of stout-hearted Filipino journalists who have
ignored risks to themselves in carrying on the struggle to restore freedom in the
Philippines. Among them are Nick G. Benoza, Leandro Quintana and Virgilio
Makalalad.
As stout-hearted as Alex's band in San Francisco, and perhaps more
dedicated than any other anti-martial law element in the United States is an old
colleague from my Manila newspapering days, writer Hermie Rotea. Rotea has
wielded both pen and his tiny purse, coordinating with Danny Lamila, a former
technical assistant to Senator Aquino, in calling the attention of America, from
their Los Angeles stations, on the dictatorship that has destroyed democracy in
the Philippines.
Rotea and Colonel Manzano were among the first persons to come out
openly in America against martial law. Rotea's hard-hitting column in the
Philippine News was a voice in the wilderness for so few dared write or speak
against Marcos in the early days of the dictatorship. Rotea, with the help of
Lamila, whom the family of Ninoy Aquino was to say "the only friend we have
left with us in America," gathered in Los Angeles, the biggest audience of
Filipinos to ever assemble in America to listen to speeches against the Marcos
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
dictatorship. Where nobody would lead demonstrations and pickets against the
Marcos regime in Los Angeles, Rotea and Lamila stepped forward and
organized these activities.
Rotea also took charge of the publicity of the defection of Consul General
Ruperto Baliao, producing headlines and television mileage all over the world
for Baliao and for the cause of Philippine freedom.
While firebrands like Rotea were fighting Marcos their way, the Movement
for a free Philippines was gaining members from a group that now provides the
MFP the kind of mature and wise leadership that comes from age and
experience. Joining the group of Colonel Manzano and Quyano were Primo
Mendoza and Judge Eliodoro Marasigan. Mendoza is the regional coordinator
of the MFP in the American Midwest with headquarters in Chicago. He was an
ex-paratrooper commando with the US Army who smuggled supplies to
Philippine guerrillas in Mindanao in World War II.
Marasigan was a classmate of Marcos in Law School. He was appointed
by Marcos to the judiciary and was visiting the United States when martial law
was imposed. The judge's dissiJusionment with Marcos was gradual. Now
certain that Marcos has no intention of restoring constitutional government to
the Philippines, Marasigan is one of the most effective critics of the Filipino
dictator through his Tagalog column in the Philippine News.
The ideas of the democratic revolution, under whose banner Marcos wants
the world to believe he had imposed martial law to reform Philippine society,
were not originally Marcos'own concoction. They were deductions developed
by Socialists Bias F. Ople and Adrian Cristobal which Marcos then refined, and
which political thinker De Vega further developed and refined for Marcos, with
the assistance of Gilberto Duavit.
Marcos felt that Philippine society, given the conditioning of centuries of
rebellion against Spain and briefly against the United States and later against
Japan, could no longer be changed by prescribed democratic methods but by
a show of force and punishment.
So the radical treatment provided by martial law to cure what he perceived
as a cancer that had its roots in the social and economic malaise which have
so gripped the Filioinos for centuries.
Marcos also wanted to change the people's internal view of themselves and
their country.
But was there need for repressive measures?
Now, it is turning out that the country will have to pay more in the steady
erosion of the Filipino values and the magnification of the repressive forces that
in the end succumb to the very diseases they seek to combat as they
themselves are corrupted.
The action taken by Marcos can only find justification, albeit negative, in
the oft-repeated remarks made by the late President Manuel L. Quezon during
the campaign for independence from the United States: “Better a government
run like hell by Filipinos than a government run like heaven by Americans!” .
This was Quezon’s answer to the condescending charge that the Filipinos were
not yet ready for self-government; that, left alone by the Americans, they would
make a mess of their own country.
Since Marcos imposed martial law, he had adopted most of the classic tools
of dictatorship to guarantee political control. Labor strikes have been banned,
Primitivo Mijares Page 407
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
political parties “recessed,” the press closed down and only the controlled ones
authorized to re appear, and Congress disbanded.
He also set up a varied network of secret police. He forced the retirement
of armed forces ranking officers whose loyalty to him was in doubt and set up
the nucleus of the secret police, the National Intelligence and Security Agency,
and the Presidential Security Command to insure himself against any coup d’e-
tat by a misguided military commander. Both the NISA and the PSC are headed
by Major Gen. Fabian C. Ver.
Manila today has an outward semblance of tranquility, with few of the
surface signs of a police state, what with several hundreds of the Marcos
opponents, including the young activists, still in jail.
The continued imprisonment without charges, nay trial, of Marcos’
opponents, notably Senator Aquino, Jr., Lopez, Jr. and Osmena III, has drawn
so much attention and criticism from abroad, not to mention the anguish and
torment of the families and relatives of these prisoners at home.
To counter the foreign critics, Marcos recently freed several thousands of
the political prisoners under “houde arrest.” He would not let any one of them
leave the country because they can make disturbing noises abroad, especially
in the United States.
Marcos is relying on too much cosmetics to improve his image instead of
getting to the root of his world-wide isolation, which is his oppressive martial
regime.
To indicate the kind of people who are collaborating with Marcos, a top
American newsmagazine said that the best Filipinos were in jail while the
scoundrels and thieves were running the government. Indeed, no Filipino
president has corrupted his nation and people as Marcos has. If Marcos
corrupts everything he touches, the same can be said of his effect on people
beyond the shores of his country. He has fooled unsuspecting people of the
world media, for example, to swallow as fact his hoaxes calculated to make him
look like an authentic war hero and a reform-minded leader.
By throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars on public relations and
cosmetic projects that his impoverished nation can ill afford, Marcos has so
glamourized despotism and repression that nations around the Philippines
have seen fit to follow his example. Indira* Gandhi must have been so
impressed with his success in placing the Philippines under his heel that she is
trying the same tactics on what used to be the the world's largest democracy.
South Korean Dictate/ Park was probably emboldened the way Marcos
has been getting away with banditry and murder that the world is now witness
to the worst and most callous wave of repression to hit South Korea. Under
Marcos' influence and inspiration, the strongmen ot East Asia, particularly
Singapore's Lee and Indonesia's Suharto, are organizing themselves under
Marcos' leadership into some kind of a Dictators' Club that authoritarianism is
becoming the world's latest status symbol.
Behind its smokescreen of Miss Universe beauty contests, boxing and
weightlifting bouts, chess tournaments and the kind of circuses that the Marcos
regime has become an expert on, the Filipino dictatorship may have looked
good on newspapers. But documented mass murders, torture and inhuman
violation of human rights establish beyond doubt that the Marcos tyranny as the
most repressive in Asia. It is only under Marcos that the Philippines has seen a
Primitivo Mijares Page 408
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
bishop murdered in his own cathedral in Manila, a Marcos cabinetman shot
dead in the presidential palace at Malacanang, tabernacles of churches
desecrated, seminaries raided and ransacked, priests, nuns and ministers
abused, tortured and jailed, judges and congressmen shot dead in churches
while receiving communion and as the latest "Associated Press" dispatch (by
Arnold Zeitlin) reported, a harmless 61 -year-old shoemaker beaten to death in
an army camp.
The Marcos regime is certainly the only dictatorship in the world without a
parliament or legislative body, even a rubber stamp one. India and South Korea
have at least allowed their Congresses to exist. Even the most totalitarian of
countries, an Alexander Solzhenitzen could give anti-government interviews to
the Western press in his Moscow apartment and Soviet dissidents can picket
the Kremlin. No such thing is allowed by Marcos in what he calls his "smiling
martial law" in the Philippines.
Marcos rules alone. Undisputably, he is the world's most total, most
absolute despot, if not also the world's richest considering that Cosmopolitan
magazine in its December 1975 issue has revealed that Imelda Marcos "is the
world's richest woman bar none." The rise of Imelda to becoming one of the ten
wealthiest women in the world today without any visible and legal income in
less than four years of ruling a poor and under-developed country prompted the
Manglapus speech on Marcos being the biggest thief in the world today.
I have so often expressed a wish during the last 365 days of my exile in the
United States to be able to go back home to my beloved Philippines. However,
I would not want to make the homeward trip for the purpose of attending the
funeral of Ferdinand E. Marcos or to be decorated by another successful
despot. My wish is that Marcos would subordinate his personal ambitions to the
greater interest of restoring democracy to my ravished country.
In pursuance of this objective, I accepted the invitation of the Movement for
a Free Philippines to keynote its third annual convention in Los Angeles on
November 22, 1975. 'I also served as leader of its panel discussions. One
resolution that came out of these MFP study sessions was what we termed as
our alternative to Marcos.
This could be wishful thinking because no dictator in history has willingly
given up power or restored government to the people. And the world knows
Ferdinand Marcos is neither an honorable nor a noble dictator. He does not
have the spartan austerity of a Ho Chi Minn, a Mao Tse Tung or a Fidel Castro.
Marcos does not have the asceticism and incorruptibility of a Francisco Franco.
True, Marcos has the ruthlessness of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. But these
tyrants at least wanted greatness for their nations and peoples. They never
were accused of having enriched themselves and their families. Marcos has
neither love for his country or people whom he has disparaged as indolent
morons and addicts to vices.
I have every faith that in God's good time, the descendants of the race that
launched the first successful national revolution in Asia in 1896 and gave the
world the first republic established by an Asian people will restore to themselves
and their posterity their lost honor, dignity and freedom.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 4-09
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
At this stage, we all perhaps could draw inspiration from a section of the
Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell) written by the National hero. Dr. Jose
Protacio Rizal, before his execution at Bagumbayan:
My dream when but an adolescent boy.
My dream when young, by then with vigor filled
Has been to see a day, O gem of the Orient Sea
When your eyes would be without tears, your head held high
Without line or wrinkle, or blush of shame....
end
Primitivo Mijares
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Photo Section
FERDINAND E. MARCOS takes the oath as sixth President of the Republic of
the Philippines on December 30, 1965 at the Luneta Independence grandstand.
He was to open an era that marked the imperceptible erosion of democracy in
the Philippines, culminating in his declaration of martial law on Sept. 21, 1972,
as a means of setting up Asia’s worst totalitarian dictatorship in this century.
Primitivo Mijares
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
The original deposit slip (front and back) showing that Alconcel deposited the
$50, 000. 00 to a joint account in his name and that of Mijares at the Lloyds Bank
California on June 1 7,1975.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 43 - 2 .
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Shortly after his inauguration as sixth President of the Republic, Marcos poses
for a photograph with members of his legitimate family before an art-nouveau
fountain in Malacanang Palace. To his left is his No. 1 wife, Imelda, who has
since their first days in Malacanang told friends that “we will not leave this place
anymore. ” To Marcos’ right (from left) are son Ferdinand Bong Bong" Marcos,
Jr., and daughters Imee and Irene.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 413
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Having tasted elegant and luxurious living in a Palace, Ferdinand and Imelda
decided early in their occupancy of Malacanang that, if they should ever leave
the official government Palace, they must move only to a palatial home
that is as elegant and luxurious as Malacanang. In late 1966, the Marcoses
acquired for “over PI ,000,000.00" a villa located in a 2,300-square meter lot
right next door to Malacanang Palace in San Miguel. It was one of two 1 7th
century “casa de ocampo ” which have survived the ravages of time and war.
The other one was Malacanang itself. Imelda commissioned Archi-
tect Leandro V. Locsin to improve the building and restore it to its originality
from the outside. The villa was then renamed "Ang Mahariika "and designated
as the site of the Marcos Foundation.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 414
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
A grand staircase that Imelda had patterned after that of nearby Malacanang
Palace is one of the luxurious features of the multi-million Marcos Palace. Its
groundfloor has a large reception hall divided into two wings with doors that
open up to the surrounding veranda. A central hall leads to the grand
staircase. A museum which doubles as the offices of the Marcos Foundation
houses the collection of Imelda of finest porcelain and pottery, mostly trade
wares excavated in the Philippines, possibly including a "Golden Buddha”
statuette. Marcos’ study room is decorated with Empire furniture and has a
precious collection of Rizaliana, coins and maps. A guest room features
French period furniture.
Primitivo Mi} ares
Page 4-15
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Originally, wooden bannisters popular during the Spanish times decorated the
staircase. Imelda had steel supports imported from Belgium and had the
arcaded ceilings re-furbished with Gothic features. There is no Philippine touch
in this Marcos Palace. The master’s bedroom is decorated with French period
furniture; Bong Bong’s room with Bo u lie furniture; Imee’s room, also with
French period furniture highlighted by a Gobelin tapestry and an Aubusson rug;
Irene’s room with Vernis Martin 18th century French furniture; and the Art
Nouveau guest room, named for the style of furniture which decorates it. The
dining room has Empire furniture, principally a dining table for sixteen. A smaller
receiving room is decorated with French period furniture. The grand reception
hall has two sections decorated with Louis XV and Louis XVI furniture.
Primitivo Mijares
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The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Imelda’s taste for royalty is fabulous. Here she and Ferdinand escort Foreign
Minister Omar Sakkaf of Saudi Arabia, who died a few months after his Manila
visit, to a reception in Malacanang. Note Imelda’s diamond tiara.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 417
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
(Office of tfrr $Irr«ibent
of thr phiiippinr*
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MMORAMMM
KM « Chttraw Primitive tuiini
Mdii Advisory Council
Vou aru hereby directed to proctwl to tka
United States immediately . if possible not later
than October 11, on special mission for thia
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VOu shall report to the under s i gned
directly for instructions.
Samples of documents establishing the credentials of Mijares as the top
confidential propaganda and censor of Dictator Marcos.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 418
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Some of the 27 medals that Marcos suddenly started displaying in 1962, 17
years after the end of World War II, to holster his claim that he was the most
decorated soldier to emerge out of that war. Official statements preserved in
the journals of the disbanded Philippine Congress show, however, that the
medals were awarded to Marcos by the newly-installed Liberal Party
administration in 1962 on the basis of affidavits produced by
Primitivo Mijares
Page 419
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Marcos in 1962 of already dead persons “attesting” to his various “exploits”
during the war. Secretary of Defense Macario Peralta, Jr., deceased, had
declared that he approved of Marcos’ requests for those medals “because, he
said, he would need them for his reelection campaign for the Senate in
1965 . . . and in exchange for his personal pledge to me that he would not run
against President Macapagal in 1965.”
Primitivo Mijares
Page 4-ZO
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
4
Ferdinand E. Marcos emerged as an army major from World War II, displaying
what apparently were his only legitimately earned war medals. All others have
been branded as “the product of forgeries and/or bloating of minor battle actions
into epic and great sagas. ”
Primitivo Mijares
Page 421
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
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Two of the uncowed anti-martial law organs of Filipinos in the United States,
the Philippine News in the West Coast, and the Philippine Times in the Midwest,
fearlessly raise the banner of overseas opposition to the dictatorship in the
Philippines. Subjected, to relentless economic and political pressure by the
Philippine dictatorship, the two fighting newspapers articulate the hopes and
aspirations of Filipinos to be freed from a home-grown tyrant.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 4ZZ
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
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Hard-hitting Washington columnist Jack Anderson wrote , in collaboration with
Les Whitten, a series of columns on the Philippine dictatorship and Marcos ’
attempt to block testimony against it before a committee of the United States
Congress.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 423
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
£ x as / A / r /i
The front and back of a check for $50, 000. 00 dollars made out by the Philippine
National Bank to Ambassador Trinidad Q. Alconcel who in turn endorsed it at
the back to Primitivo Mijares on June 17, 1975 the day Mijares was to testify
before the Fraser committee. It was intended clearly as a bribe to stop
Mijares from appearing before the committee.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 42.4
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
jV Y */ ' 7 yy/ '
The original deposit slip (front and back) showing that Alconcel deposited the
$50, 000. 00 to a joint account in his name and that of Mijares at the Lloyds Bank
California on June 1 7,1975.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 4ZS
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Reprinted in January 2016 by
Self-Publisher - Tatay Jobo Elizes
Printed in the United States of America under ISBN codes below.
ISBN-13: 978 - 1523292196 + ISBN-10: 1523292199
Book List - Buy online as paperback or kindle,
Contact: job elizes@yahoo.com, tatay@usa.com
Websites: http://tinyurl.com/mi76ccq + www.jobelizes.webs.com + www.tataviobo.com
Writings 1 Book, 2012 , Articles by Bambi Harper + Butch Jiimenez + Dr. Phil Stack + Noel
Alegre + Toto Causing +_ Melanie Ferrer + Susie Barbieri _ Rodel Ramos + Sylvia
Salvador + Tatay Jobo Elizes + + Writings 2 Book, 2012, Artices by Gov. Grace Padaca
+ Melanie Aquino + Toto Causing + Rodel Rodis + Cesar Torres + Joey Concepcion +
Charity Guides + Cesar Lumba +_ Casiano Mayor Jr. + Sonny Coloma + Anonymous.+ +
Writings 3A Book, 2012, Articles by Norman Madrid + Dr. Rene Azurin + Ernie Delfin + Toto
Causing + Dr. Jose Abueva + MarVic Cagurangan + Casiano Mayor Jr + Rod Garcia + Roy
Gaane + Tatay Jobo Elizes + + Writings 3B Book, 2012, Articles by Ceres Busa + John
Reyes + Bert Guiang. + + Writings 4A Book, 2012, Articles by Dr Jose Abueva + Col.
Dennis Acop + Fred Natividad + Irineo P. Goce, KaPule2 + Miguel Reynadlo + Marjorie Ann
Elizes Reyes+ +
Writings 4B Book, 2012, 1 . Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell), Dr. Jose P. Rizal + 2. Aling
Pagibig Sa Tinubuang Bayan, Gat. Andres Bonifacio + Articles by Irineo P. Goce or
KaPule2 + + Writings 5 Book - “Best Hopes” 2010 (About President P-Noy), Articles by
Tony Meloto + F.SionilJose + Juan L. Mercado + OFWs Letter + Marcelo Tecson + Cesar
Torres+ Perry Diaz + Dr. Philip S. Chua + Ernie Delfin + Atty. Ted Laguatan + Frank
Wenceslao Jaileen F. Jimeno + Tatay Jobo Elizes + +
Writings 6 Book, 2010 + 1. SONA- State Of Nation Address - English - Pres. Benigno Aquino
III + II. SONA - State of Nation Address - Pilipino - Pres. Benigno Aquino III + III. First 100
Days peech - Pilipino - Pres. Benigno Aquino III + Artiucles by Bert Guiang + Tony Meloto
+ Felicito or Tong C. Payumo + Cesar Lumba + Flor Lacanilao + Juan DelaCruz or
Txtmanika + Dr. Ramon Marquez + Joey Jamito + Percival Cruz + Rod Garcia + Orion Perez
Dumdum + Sarah Raymundo. + + Writings 7 Book, 2010 - My Vintage Pics - Pictorials &
Family, Tatay Jobo Elizes + + Writings 8 Book, 2010, Articles by Gel Santos Relos +
Ms. Mike Portes + Jose Ma. Montelibano + Tony Meloto + Dr. Philip S. Chua + Dr. Cesar D.
Candari + Dr. Eliseo Serina + Greg B. Macabenta + Irineo P. Goce or KaPule2 + Percival
Cruz + Juan DelaCruz or Textmani + Demosthenes B. Donato. + +
Writings 9 Book, April 2011, Articles by Judge Simeon dumdum Jr + Gemma Cruz Araneta
+ Larry Henares Jr + Tony Joaquin + Allen Gaborro + Atty. Toto Causing + Mar-Vic
Cagurangn + Emily Espanol Derry, Poet + Elyn Jean Felarca, Poet + Naysan A. Albaytar +
Laura Wade, Blogger + Perter Allan Mariano + Marge Trajeco-Aberasturi + Julia Carreon
Primitivo Mijares
Page 42.6
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Lagoc + Irineo P. Goce or KaPulle2 + Anonymous. + + Writings 10 Book, July, 2010,
Articles by Atty.Ted Lagutan + Percival C. Cruz + Allen Gaborro + Peter Allan Mariano +
M.L. Munoz + Alvib T. Tabaniag + Resty Odon + Dr. Phili S. Chua + Dr. Cesar D. Candari +
Anonymous. + +
Writings 11 Book, August, 2011 + 1, SONA In English and Filipino, by President Benigno
Aquino III (P-Noy) + 2, Telltale Signs: SONA and the Dogfight Over Spratlys, by Rodel
Rodis + Atty. Ted Laguatan + Tatay Jobo Elizes + Jeremiah M. Opiniano + OFW Journalists
+ Bob & Carol Hammerslag + Roger P. Olivares + Rob Ceralvo + Anonymous + Irineo P.
Goce or KaPule2 + Random. + + Writings 12 Book, April 2012 + Articles By Orion Perez
Dumdum + Julia C. Lagoc + Honorio M. Cruz, MD + Ben Gonzales, MD + Mar-Vic
Cagurangan + Marisa Lerias + Gerry Partido + Dr. Cesar D. Candari + Erwin De Leon +
Jovelyn B. Revilla + Tatay Jobo Elizes + +
Writings 13 Book, July 2012 + Articles by Raymundo E. Narag + M.L. Munoz + Sonia
Barbara gl Munoz + Pamela Joy Agtoto + Percival C. Cruz + Tatay Jobo Elizes + Jhakie
Eslit Bayobay + Reygel Saplad Perales. + + Timely Writings 14, 2013 + Articles by Cesar
F. Lumba + Eugenio Pulmano + Late Jesse Robredo + Antonio Nievera + Alvin T. Tabaniag
+ Kevin L. Nadal + Anonymous + Fred Natividad + Anonymous + Ellen Tordesillas + Lat
Capt. Rene N. Jarque + +
Timeless Writings-1 5 (TW1 5), 2014 + Articles by SC Justice Antonio T. Carpio + Atty Dodel
Rodis + Atty. Ted Laguatan + Sona by Pres. Benigno Aquino III + F. Sionil Jose + Dr. Philipi
Stack + Racz Kelly, Padilla + Bert Armada.+ + Timeless Writings-1 6 (TW1 6), 2014 + Articles
about The Martyrs of Camarines Norte + by Rodel Rodis + R.A.Gubalane + Robert
Bernardo + Pres. Aquino's SONA 2014 + + Timeless Writings-17 (TW17), 2014 + Articles
by Rodel Rodis+ Jose P. Rizal+ Irineo Goce+ Julia Lagos + Alvin Tabaniag+ Ragubalane
+ Red Butterfly+ Cesar Torres + + Timeless Writings-1 8 (TW18) + Articles by Rodel Rodis
+ Raul Manglapus + Ragubalane + Allen Gaborro + Manuel Vergara + + Timeless Writings-
19 (TW19) + Articles by Atty. Ted Laguatan + Romely Bacsain + Charlie Chaplin + Orlando
Carvajal + Allen Gaborro + Rodel Rodis + Primitivo Mijares + Krip Yuson + + Timeless
Writings-20 (TW-20) + Excerpts from Primitivo Mijares Book, Conjugal Dictatorship + +
Solo Authored Books: + + +
Book A, Turning Points, Job Elizes Sr, 1968 (Reissue 2009) + + + Book B, Be Considerate
For Once, Tatay Jobo Elizes (Jr), 2013 Book C, Piglets Unlimited - Wealth, Tatay Jobo
Elizes, 2009 + + + Book D, Out of the Misty Sea We Must, Cesar Lumba, 2010 + + +
Book E, Fulfilled - Gonzales Reynaldo, Editor, 2010+ + + Book F - Reflections - Bert
Guiang, 2010 + + + Book G, Writings 7 - My Vintage Pics, Tatay Jobo Elizes, 2010 +
Book H, May Bagwis Ang Pag-ibig , Percival C. Cruz+ + + Book I, Letters To
Matrimony, Irineo P. Goce, Ka Pule2, 2011 + Book J, Songs I Wish You Knew, Soledad
R. Juan, 2011 + + + Book K, Make My Day, Larry Henares Jr., 1993, Re-issue 2011 + Book
Primitivo Mijares
Page 427
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
L, Our Guerrero Family, Tatay Jobo Elizes, 2010 + + + Book M, Handy Jokes, Tatay J.
Elizes, 2011 + Book N, FaveArt 1, Tatay Jobo Elizes, 2011 + +
Book 0, Beyond idle thoughts, MLMunoz, Sept, 2011 + + + Book P, Cracks In The Armor,
Mariano Ngan, Oct 2011+ + + Book Q, FaveArt 2, Tatay Jobo Elizes, 2011+ + Book
R, Balitang Kutsero, Perry Diaz, Jan 2012+ + + Book S, FaveArt3, Tatay Jobo, 2011 + + +
Book T, FaveArt4 ,2012, Tatay Jobo + + + Book U, Stack Family Journals, Phil & Fe Stack,
2012 + + + Book V, Emily, An Adoption Journey, Romerl Elizes, 2012 + + +
Book W, Hermes Alegre Art Gallery, TJ & Hermes, 2012 + + + Book X, Masaya Din,
Malungkot Din, Jovelyn B. Revilla, 2012 Book Y, Tiis, Sipag At Tiyaga, Raquel Delfin
Padilla, 2012 + + + Book Z, Until I Meet You, Jhackie Eslit Bayobay, 2012 + + + Book
AA, Buhay At Pag-ibig, Argel Lucero Tamayo, 2012 + + + Book AB, Hail to the Second
Best, Dr. Philip Stack, 2012 + + + Book AC, Life Bus, Mommy Joyce Pineda-Faulmino,
2012 + + + Book AD, My Candid Musings, Monette Dioquino Calugay, 2012 + Book
AE, Tickets to Life, Maria Lourdes Jesalva, 2012 + + + Book AF, The Dove Files, Mike
Portes, 2012 + + + Book AG, Nursing Vignettes, Jocelyn Cerrudo Sese, 2012 + Book AH,
Poor Ba Us, R.A. Gubalane, 2012 + + +
Book Al, Summer Idyll, Avelina Gil, 2012 + + Book AJ, Legacy (Pamana), Rachel Astrero,
2012 + + Book AK, Narratives Old & New, Avelina J. Gil, 2013 + + Book AL, Buhay
Saudi, Adele J. Esic, 2013 + + Book AM, Buhay Ofw Atbp, Jessica Napat, 2013 + + Book
AN, Mga Tula Ng Buhay, Angelita C. Esguerra, 2013+ + Book AO, Not by Bread
Alone, Judge Lily V. Magtolis, 2013 + + Book AP, Jokes Collection-2, Tatay Jobo Elizes,
2013 + + +
Book AR, My Writings Sometimes, Tatay Jobo Elizes, 2013 + + Book AS, Sa 'Yo Na Ako,
Shayne A. Martinez, 2013 + + Book AT, My Kin's Family Trees, Tatay Jobo Elizes, 2013 +
+ Book AU, Rizal Family Tree & Others, Tatay Jobo Elizes, 2013 + + Book AV, Make My
Day-2, Nice & Nasty, L. Henares, 2013 (1993) + + Book AW, Make My Day-3, Cecilia, Love,
L. Henares, 2013 (f993)Book AX, Handy Lyrics-1, Tatay Jobo Elizes, 2013 + +
Book AY, Ang Biblos, Rev. Dr. Eugenio Guerrero, 2014 (1929) + + Book AZ, Make My Day-
4, Sweef & Sour, L. Henares, 2014 (1993) + + Book BA, Life’s Journey, True Stories, Dr.
Phil Stack, 2014 + + Book BB, Gerry Gil Writings, 2014, Danny Gil + + Book BC, Mr.
President, Hermie Rotea, 2014 + + Book BD, Nostalgic Pics 1, Tatay Jobo Elizes, 2014 + +
Book BE, MakeMyDay-5, Saints & Sinners, Henares, 2014 (1993) + +
Book BF, MakeMyDay-6, Villains & Heroes, Henares, 2014 (1993) + + Book BG, Nostalgic
Pics 2 (ElizesClan), TatayJE, 2014 + + Book BH, MakeMyDay-7, Tough & Tender, Henares,
2014(1993) + + Book Bl, MakeMyDay-8, Light & Shadow, Henares, 2014(1993) + + Book BJ,
MakeMyDay-9, Give & Take, Henares, 2014(1993) + + Book BK, MakeMyDay-10,
ToBeOrNotToBe, Henares, 2014(1993) +
Primitivo Mijares
Page 42.8
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Book BL, Emily Forever In Love, Poems, Emily Espanol Derry, 2013 + + Book BM, The
Sinatra Songbook, Henares, 2014 + + Book BN, The Gaborro Reader, Allen Gaborro, 2010
+ + Book BO, Ramon H. Lopez - Art Gallery, 2014 + + Book BP, Philippines Via Old Pics-
1, Tatay Jobo, 2014 + + Book BQ, Ronna Manansala - Art Gallery, 2014 + + Book BR,
Philippines Via Old Pics-2, Tatay Jobo, 2014 + + BookBS, Being Good-A Medley Of Love,
Dr. Phil Stack, 2014 + + Book BT, Lifestream Fisherman, A Filipino Odyssey, Paul Dalde,
Jul2014 + + Book BU, Kristina Reed Manansala, Art Gallery-1, August 2014.+ +
Book BV, Hermes Art Gallery-2, Sep2014, + + Book BW, Fave Art-5, Tatay Jobo, Sep2014
+ + Book BX, Cash & Credits, Make My Day-11, Larry Henares, Sept 2014 + + Book BY,
Rise & Fall, Make My Day-12, Larry Henares, Oct 2014 + + Book BZ, Swans & Swine, Make
My Day-13, Larry Henares, Oct 2014 + + Book CA, Touch & Go, Make My Day-14, Larry
Henares, Oct 2014 + + Book CB, Life & Death, Make My Day-15, Larry Henares, Oct2014 +
Book CC, Kiss & Bite, Make My day -16, Larry Henares, Oct 2014 + + Book CD, Good &
Evil, Make My Day-17, Larry Henares, Oct2014 + + Book CE, Beast & Beauty, Make My
Day-1 8, Larry Henares, 2014 + + Book CF, Beggar & King, Make My Day-1 9, Larry Henares,
Oct 2014 + + Book CG, Trash & Treasures, Make My Day-20, Larry Henares, Oct 2014 + +
BookCH, Wear & Tear, Make My Day-21, Larry Henares, Oct 2014 + + Book Cl, Why Blame
the President, Irineo P. Goce, Oct 2014 + +
Book CJ, Angel & Devil, Make My Day-22, Larry Henares, Oct 2014 + + Book CK, Pretty
Ugly, Make My Day-23, Larry Henares, Oct 2014 + + Book CL, Salvation & Damnation, Make
My Day-24, Larry Henares, Oct 2014 + + Book CM, Don Daniel Maramba, Larry Henarez &
Edith Perez de Tagle, Oct 2014 + + Book CN, Hilarion G. Henares, Larry Henares & Edith
Perez de Tagle, Oct 2014 + +Book CO, FaveArt-5 ++ Book CP, FaveArt-6, Book CQ,
FaveArt-7, Book CR, FaveArt-8 (All FaveArt books by Tatay Jobo), 2014 + +
Book CS, Minsan May Isang Puta, Ms. Mike Portes, 2014 + + Book CT, Ramblings A, Danny
Gil, 2014 + + Book CD, Ramblings-B, Danny Gil, 2014 + + Book CV, Grace Esmeralda
Album, by her, 2014 + + Book CW, Secrets of a Romantic Man, Dr. Phil Stack, 2014 + +
Book CX, Ramblings-C, Danny Gil, 2014 + + Book CY, Ramblings-D, Danny Gil, 2014 + +
Book CZ, Ramblings-E, Danny Gil, 2014 ++ Book DA, Tenacious Nurse-1, Gretheline
Bolandrina, 2014 + + Book DB, Tenacious Nurse-2, Gretheline Ramos-Bolandrina, 2015 +
+ Book DC, Of Words I Have Found, Dan Jimenez (danmeljim), 2015 + +
Book DD, Tanjay East Coast Magazine, Issue 1, Feb 2015 + + Book DE, Tanjay
East Coast Magazine, Issue 2, April 2015 + + Book DF, Catechism Manual, Dr. Latorre,
April 2015 + + Book DG, Tanjay East Coast Magazine, Extra Issue 2A, April 2015 + + Book
DH, Wedding Album, Anita & Barry, May 2015 + + Book Dl, Tanjay E. Coast Magazine,
Poconos, May 2015 + + Book DJ, Baptism Guidebook, Dr. Latorre, May 2015 + + Book DK,
Chita, a Memoir, Tony Joaquin + + Book DL, A Journey Unto Peace, Dr. Phil Stack,
June2015+ + Book DM, Jokes Collection-3, Tatay Jobo Elizes, July2015 + + Book DN,
Jokes Collection-4, Tatay Jobo Elizes, Aug2015 + + Book DO, Jokes Collection-5, Tatay
Jobo Elizes, Sep2015 + + Book DP, Beautiful Lie, Joecel Jayme, Jan 2016 + +
Primitivo Mijares Page 4-ZR
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Permission had been granted by the author/authors/heirs to print their books under
my free self-publishing and reprint services. They own copyrights to their works.
Interested reader may request free reading/viewing of any of my booklist via online
reading or ebook. Just email me.
Why I Publish and Reprint Books
by Tatay Jobo Elizes
Writings are timeless documents and they act as mirrors of history. I publish and
reprint books as they remain relevant anytime. One need not be a good writer. The only
requirement is to write in simple terms to be understood. I have seen a lot of good writings
in the internet, in magazines, newspapers and various media. Usually, writers have only
one or two articles. Yet they need to be published. I collect them to come up with a
collection in order to complete a fairly good-size book. I produce also solo-author books,
columns, novels, opinions, essays, art books, pictorial albums, family trees, joke books,
songhits, biographies, travelogues, reunions, in color or black/white, etc.
Why put writings in a hardcopy or book? And not just in the internet. Well, the
hardcopy is there for posterity and availability. Not all use the internet. Sometimes,
internet has problems.
I publish or reprint free of charge under POD system (Print-On-Demand. Print is always
available and for all eternity, unless the owner or author chooses to halt its publication.
Primitivo Mijares
Page 43 O
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